All exhibitions

Transcoded Structures

Olga Tobreluts

March 14 - May 18, 2025

The show will feature three painting series produced by the artist over the past 15 years, as well as the most comprehensive retrospective of her video art to date.

Tobreluts is the only - and possibly the last - artist of her generation who is much more captivated by clouds and the sky than by what lies beneath her feet.

She has an extraordinary ability to cast aside all trivial and fleeting things, overcome obstacles and barriers, and embrace challenges and seemingly unattainable goals. A visionary artist of remarkable talent and versatility, she was the first, back in the early 1990s, to foresee the meteoric rise of new media in art, and the first to commit herself to traditional painting techniques, just like those taking religious vows commit themselves to a monastery. During the 1990s, she audaciously experimented with video and photography, developing a brand-new artistic vocabulary inspired by digital technology. Today, these works are owned by major museums and important private art collectors worldwide. However, Tobreluts has dedicated the last 15 years to traditional painting, focusing on three large-scale projects. While they may appear unrelated at first glance, each is deeply rooted in the artist's personal reflections and experiences, and collectively they co-exist in a complex and dynamic dialogue. As of now, the most important of her ongoing projects comprises more than 240 paintings, some of which will be on display at the show organized by the Foundation.

Created in 2014, the Celestial Landscapes series was first exhibited at the NAME GALLERY in Saint Petersburg during the Manifesta Biennial. Legendary art historian Arkady Ippolitov, who curated the exhibition, provided arguably the most insightful observation about the series: "Olga Tobreluts's paintings depict landscapes seen through the eyes of those who've ascended into the heavens - be it Ganymede, Saint Catherine, or an airline passenger. They make you long for tranquility and the sky, as well as German Romantic music."

The Summer Dress series was first put on public display at the Marina Gisich Gallery in Saint Petersburg in 2018. These paintings are a sort of sacred mystery and an ode to awakening, burgeoning life. They also represent an attempt to view nature as if in slow motion, capturing the subtlest changes and shades.

Tobreluts explains that the idea was born while she was taking a walk along the lake shore outside the town of Pacsa in Hungary. There, she conceived a series of paintings about the abduction of a sleeping Europa. To slow down time and return the kidnapped Europa, Tobreluts encourages viewers to delve into contemplating a flower as the ultimate symbol of all creation's beauty.

The Transcoded Structures series premiered in the North Macedonia Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. This series is an extensive experiment in which the artist explores the capabilities of the human mind and its perception of digital information; Tobreluts is trying to understand how our brains process and interpret digital images, compared to modern smartphones and communication devices.

Almost all of the pieces featured in the Foundation's exhibition have been loaned by private collectors. The Foundation's curators, as well as Vera Pogodina and Dmitry Gaikov, all have put in a lot of effort in reaching out to art collectors, galleries, and museums, making it possible to put together and showcase the most comprehensive retrospective of Olga Tobreluts's output from the past 15 years.