NYAB Event - Zoya Frolova “White Moves”

Zoya Frolova “White Moves”

Mimi Ferzt Gallery

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Mimi Ferzt presents White Moves, a solo exhibition of new artwork by Zoya Frolova. In the tradition of artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Ryman and Suprematist founder Kazimir Malevich, who believe there is no more purposeful color than white to express the ability to open the mind to “the supremacy of pure feeling’, Frolova’s current paintings explore these ideals. The varied cultural associations of “white” evoke the presence of peace, innocence, purity, stillness, contemplation, starkness, and birth and death. A powerful Lucio Fontana composition of white disrupted with a slash of black could also be perceived as a symbol of aggression. In Frolova’s paintings, her ambitions are to express the nuances of white color in translation by masterfully applying multilayered hues of paint upon a neutral beige linen canvas. The compositions, inspired by texture, costumes, monarchy, politicians, and even a clothesline of simple white shirts, are infused with the artist’s inner strength of how “white” is seen.

In Frolova’s extraordinary portraits of figureheads of power, her kings, queens and politicians, are steadfast and poised to take on any unseen opponent who challenges their dominion. The large scale of these paintings is commensurate with the imposing figures’ authority. The artist’s exquisite rendering of the clothing, ornaments, shoes, hair, shirt and ties, demonstrates her unrivalled mastery of turning ordinary cloth into a palpable veil of texture. The Player’s arms are rendered in a flurry of motion, his wavering hands balancing between decisions that are not black and white. Smiling upward towards the sky, he gleefully appears skillful at mastering his multiple tasks. These paintings are representative of omnipresent hierarchal power in recent and past history, each work created with striking poses of obvious whimsy. She calls this “the Game they play.”

Zoya Frolova was born in Kharkov, Ukraine. Eight years after graduating from the Kharkov Art Institute in 1976, Frolova moved to Riga, Latvia, to join her husband and fellow-artist Janis Jakobson. In 1990, Frolova and Jakobson permanently relocated to the United States.