By Anthony Fawcett, the esteemed art critic and historian, once served as John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s personal curator. His illustrious career includes introducing Man Ray to London, collaborating with icons like Andy Warhol, and assuming pivotal roles in leading art institutions. Fawcett is renowned for his 80 historical interviews with legends such as Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Jean Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, Gilbert & George and many others.
“There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common site,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore; –
Turn wheresoe’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
(William Wordsworth, Ode, (b. 1770, d. 1850).)
Glafira Kotova is a multi-talented painter who bedazzles us with her unique oeuvre, combining both traditional oil painting mixed with a subtle handling of digital art. Now London-based, Glafira hails from Russia and has already achieved success winning awards and exhibiting in Moscow, the Boomer Gallery in London, and participating in the prestigious art residency “Octava” in Tula.
“Moment of Choice” (30 x 40 cm, oil paint) is an abstract work bursting with scintillating rainbow colors, radiating out from a central sphere (perhaps the moon?). Both luminescent and slightly lurid, the painting sings with a kaleidoscope palette – it could be the flag of a newly discovered island near the Equator!
“An hour is not merely an hour; it is a vase filled with perfumes, with sounds, with projects, with climates.”
– Marcel Proust, “In Search of Lost Time”
Glafira has explained that in her work she “invites viewers to reflect on the dualities of life, crafting visual narratives that connect timeless themes with contemporary perspectives.” This she does in abundance.
One of my favorite paintings is “Shards of Mind” (32 x 32 cm, digital art). Slightly enigmatic, it is a portrait of a young girl, her head and shoulders, and her face looking downwards as if in a trance. The color hues are soft pastel blues and grays, accentuated by myriad shades of orange all blended to create a fluid, dreamlike world. The girl’s red lips, with her mouth slightly open, focus one’s attention. In the foreground, a strange forest of thin lattice-like forms seems to trap her inside. Glafira conveys so many emotions in this one portrait.
Glafira Kotova’s oeuvre has the playfulness that one often finds in the work of Joan Miró. She beguiles us with her chromatic reverberations, every painting mingling her thick impasto palette, bursting with energy. I greatly look forward to seeing where this highly accomplished painter will take us on her next trajectory!
– Anthony Fawcett
