One of the main reasons why contemporary art evolves, stirs our hearts, captivates our attention, and makes us willing to follow it, purchase it, and collect it is that contemporary art is alive. Living phenomena exist with us on the same timeline and therefore lack the privilege of being unequivocal cultural treasures or dusty conventional values. Living contemporary art, like a living contemporary person, is capable of making mistakes and misjudgments, leading us astray, and seeming too ephemeral and immersed in the present.
However, it is precisely all of the above that makes contemporary art alive and all the more interesting (for me and for many other professional art critics) to seek out and analyse not only living contemporary art but especially those works that position themselves through their main subject of artistic inquiry—life.
My most vivid recent experience with this kind of art was at the exhibition The Blooming Soul, which was opened for just a few days in March at the Eight Squared Gallery in Folkestone. This intimate art exhibition was dedicated to themes of life, spring, and the intersection of humanity and nature. Firstly, I was drawn to the diversity of mediums.
The exhibition featured works of photography, graphic works, and installations. Secondly, I was struck by the boldness with which contemporary artists tackle the subject of life; here are some of the most impressive themes I encountered: the struggle of the hegemony of dead matter against fragile new plant sprouts, the human as a negligible part of the landscape, the interdependence of organisms on one another, the irreversibility of death equating to the irreversibility of life, and the infinite diversity of organic forms.
From the exhibition description, I learnt that it featured the works of eight artists: Igor Khlopotov, Irina Slepko (Gauk), Iryna Yauseyenka, Mariia Babina, Natalia Titova, Svetlana Sycheva, Victoria Dini, and Yulia Rotkina. I am confident that I will find their social media and keep track of their future successes. It seems to me that before our eyes, a new, younger, freer, and more empathetic generation of artists is emerging—one that is unafraid of complex themes and is ready to fight for its ethical and aesthetic ideals, and that is truly wonderful. The emotionality of the artist, combined with technical perfection, allows the viewer to feel more alive than they are.
