Fondazione Mudima hosts Ksenia Pasyura's first solo exhibition in Milan

With an exhibition that offers an immersion in the grotesque and the sublime, Fondazione Mudima presents the first solo exhibition in Milan by London-based artist Ksenia Pasyura. From June 14 to July 12, 2024, some 30 paintings, all previously unseen, intend to challenge perceptions and evoke reflections on the human condition. Indeed, Pasyura’s work, characterized by surreal elements, explores themes of identity, transformation and the boundaries of reality. The exhibition features a series of large canvases in which the rules of anatomy and physics are broken. The works are crowded with bulging eyes, twisted legs, enlarged feet and floating body parts. Although seemingly humorous and vibrant, they have an undercurrent of ambiguity and menace. As viewers we are drawn to such figures, their grotesque bodies, at once fascinating and repulsive. They flow, disassemble and reassemble, defying logical order and transgressing every aesthetic canon.

The paintings depict a myriad of naked body parts, with cigarettes, smoke, vulgar and mocking faces that convey a certain freedom of being, freedom in bodily existence. The celebration of the body, its needs and functions invites us to question dominant social orders, etiquette and the seriousness of art itself. In her practice, the artist masterfully blends the humorous aspects of the grotesque and caricature. Inspired by Russian philosopher Michail Bachtin ’s analysis of traditional folk carnivals and grotesque imagery, Pasyura seeks to capture the connection between satire, deprecatory images and their moralizing and transformative power in culture. The carnivalesque allows for the suspension of conventional norms and blurs social boundaries, and it is this aspect that Pasyura investigates and represents.

In an age marked by uncertainty and change, the grotesque and satire still act as powerful forces, inviting us to question, criticize and reimagine the world around us. Ksenia Pasyura’s paintings remind us of the fragile boundary between the center and the margin, the human and the animal, the self and the other, encouraging us to topple the concepts of established social norms from their pedestal.

Ksenia Pasyura is an acclaimed contemporary artist living and working in London. Her work delves into the surreal and grotesque, often exploring themes of identity and transformation. She has held exhibitions internationally, earning critical acclaim for depth and originality.

For all information, you can visit the official website of the Mudima Foundation.

Fondazione Mudima hosts Ksenia Pasyura's first solo exhibition in Milan

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