Solo exhibition at The Commons Gallery:
April 13 - 27, 2021
Virtual exhibition at uhmmfa2021.org:
April 5 - October 5, 2021
I am thrilled to share my upcoming set of virtual and real life painting exhibitions entitled, Atlas of the Disappearing. This body of work is both the culmination of my MFA research at the University of Hawai’i (uhmmfa2021.org) and the first chapter of a much larger, evolving, multimedia body of work.
My solo exhibition takes place from April 13 - 27th at The Commons Gallery, in real life/in-person at UHM (2535 McCarthy Mall, Rm 141, Honolulu, HI 96822). I will be hosting an informal open house from 1pm-6pm on April 18th, please come by, talk with me, and see the work in person (masks are required on campus but parking is free on Sundays!)
Alternately, schedule a private walk through appointment through this link.
There will be a virtual artist talk between fellow MFA artists, Nanea Lum and Jenna Macy, and myself on April 29th at 12pm HST. (Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/6418635286 Meeting ID: 641 863 5286; Passcode: Manoa2021)
PRESS RELEASE:
The Commons Gallery, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM), is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Ava Fedorov.
Ava Fedorov addresses loss, extinction, and the climate crisis through her abstract paintings that fuse together the internal, emotional landscape and the external, physical world. Her work engages with these concepts via a multifaceted point of view that is reflective, observational, dialogic, and, at times, hypothetical. Overall, her work reflects on an expanded definition of landscape—past, present, and future—to examine its complex layering through the interplay of image, material, and concept.
The improvisational techniques of pouring, dripping, and large, broad gestures of unconscious movement are allusions to enduring landscapes that generate sentiments akin to lyricisms or emotions. At the same time, more controlled and intentional techniques such as collage, drawing, and writing layer a consciousness into the unconscious marks, evoking the tension of the duality of observing the outside from within.
Ava’s work uses both lyricism and abstraction to conjure the inverted and diametric pain of only realizing the importance of something in the moment it vanishes—in this case, it is the overlaid arrangements of life on earth as we know it. The fragmentation of this awareness is reflected in the physical and implied layering in her paintings. Looming shadows, ghost formations, cascading light, and torn paper cutouts placed backwards on the canvas invoke entities that are diachronically expressed as a remembered and an experienced present—still fathomable and tangible while also being irretrievably lost.
Artist Bio
Ava Fedorov is a Honolulu-based visual artist, writer, and educator who is originally from a remote region of Upstate New York. With a background that also includes design and film, Ava pulls from all realms of her creative knowledge to create immersive art experiences that blur the lines of genre. Her work portrays disappearing wilderness, haunted geographies, and the implicit nexus that connects internal and external landscapes. She uses visual art and poetry as a means of bearing witness to these places, creating a record of their landscapes—paying attention to and honoring the way they have shaped the stories and evolutions of existence. Ava’s work attempts to change the way we see, experience, and value these unique places and their inhabitants, and in doing so, inspires action and the prevention of future damage and loss.
Ava received a BA in film from Bard College, a MA in illustration from Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City, and most recently, her MFA in painting from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She is also a twice-awarded John Young Scholar in the Arts. Ava teaches studio art at Hawai‘i Pacific University and is the founder and president of CICADA, an organization committed to amplifying the creative response to environmental justice and the climate crisis.