Polina Barskaya “Place”

Monya Rowe Gallery

[Image: Polina Barskaya "Bloomville Cabin Sunlight" (2019) acrylic on panel, 20 by 24 in.]

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Monya Rowe Gallery presents an exhibition of paintings by Polina Barskaya titled Place. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.

Barskaya’s confessional portraits have a diaristic quality to them. Working from photographs, but allowing for artistic liberties, Barskaya depicts herself or her husband within a domestic space. These self-portraits are either in the artist’s home in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn or in various accommodations visited throughout her frequent travels (ranging from Bloomville, NY to France). Mired in quotidian details, each psychological drama is charged with longing, sexuality and self-reflection.

In this suite of new paintings, Barskaya places an emphasis on the bedroom. We spend a lot of time in bed: sleeping, ruminating, worrying, getting dressed. It’s where we start the day and end the day. In Bloomville Cabin Sunlight (2019), a self-portrait, the artist is depicted on the edge of a bed with an anxious gaze toward a window. Echoing Andrew Wyeth’s (1917- 2009) Christina’s World (1948), Barskaya’s painting hones in on the psychological intensity of its’ subject and the strangeness of place. Within these enclosed spaces Barskaya often uses windows and light to create a sense of disconnect and isolation. Quiet, and still, with rumbling under tones, her paintings are stories about the human condition. Through a combination of vulnerability and power, Barskaya unravels the complexity of life in her sincere self-portraits.

Polina Barskaya (b. 1984, Cherkassy, Ukraine) received a MFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY and a BA from Hunter College, NY. Recent group exhibitions include Tillou Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY and The Salon at The Wing SOHO, NY. Her work was also recently part of a two-person exhibition with Anthony Cudahy at Monya Rowe Gallery. Barskaya’s solo exhibition “Brightwater Avenue” at Monya Rowe Gallery in 2018 was included in Artforum’s “Best of 2018” December issue. Barskaya lives and works in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY.