CREATIVE DOSSIER: Ukrainian artist Nadiia Forkosh
Nadiia Forkosh is an artist whose works are better known abroad (Austria, Great Britain, Brazil) than in Ukraine. She sees her task in connecting the two dimensions of modern painting — the real (canvas) and the virtual (NFT).
At the moment, Nadiia is preparing a personal exhibition in conjunction with the ARX gallery (London, January 2022), where more than 25 canvases will be presented, and also — conceptual NFTs.
What is the first creative moment in your life that you remember?
Was there someone around at that moment who could testify and appreciate your work?
Yes, my grandfather.
What is your creative ambition?
In my work, I try to be honest. I still try to solve the riddle of lines and colors through my paintings …
How can you formulate your concept?
It’s not easy to tell, but I’ll try. It has to do with how digital and physical art relate. First of all, I would like to note that the need to comprehend such ratio, in my opinion, is relevant and important.
So, I understand digital art as a synthetic manifestation of light, electricity, energy… Synthetic means such that it can be completely re-created, so they say that digital art arises from nothing.
Digital painting differs, for example, from digital photography, in that the plot of the composition in the photo is given, while the plot in digital painting can be given. In this sense, digital art is the refinement of culture, the ethereal substance of its value of dynamics.
Thus, digital art arose and exists thanks to the element of light, which creates forms, colors and sounds in the form of a binary code. Physical art always carries with it elemental primary elements, such as, for example, minerals for making paints, marble for sculptures, etc.
Physical art is a creative response to the nature, while digital art is a creative response to culture. It is clear that digital art is only at the initial stage of its development and cannot boast of such significant achievements as it happens in physical art. However, the situation can be expected to change in the future.
In our time, it is important not only to be connected to the world of digital art and the physical, but it is equally important to try to understand how they can and should relate. A contemporary artist cannot but participate in the conceptualization of aesthetic objects.
After all, in the end, we are talking about a person and his aesthetic experiences, but also, and this is especially important in a modern situation, about the ways of interpreting the aesthetic. So, digital and physical art indicate not only differences in the method of creating objects of creativity, but also have a fundamental difference.
It seems to me that the digital is often born out of the subjective and moves towards the objective, while the physical moves in the opposite order, namely from the objective, from the given, to subjective experiences. Although it is not always the case.
I think that movements such as expressionism, and especially abstractionism, in a sense paved the way for the self-liberation of art in the digital dimension, which was realized thanks to the rapid development of technology.
It is clear that it also leads to a change in the very experience of perceiving an aesthetic object, as far as the methods of influencing the viewer in digital art are more flexible than the methods of influencing physical art.
Practicing both types of art — both physical and digital, I believe that at this stage in the development of digital art, they should be complemented by one another, in order to get the possibility of a more voluminous aesthetic perception in contrast to the differences. In music, for example, the facets of differences have been fruitfully mutually complementary for a long time. Hope it’s time for painting too.
Thus, my concept is to search for a hybrid form and color through which it would be possible to organically combine light and elements, real and virtual.
How do you start your day?
With the notes in the diary.
Which artists do you admire the most?
Caravaggio, Dali, Wassily Kandinsky…
Why are they an example for you?
I remember the first time I saw Dali’s paintings. It was some kind of painting magazine. Several of his landscapes were printed there. It turned out that you can put your dreams into reality itself! It was amazing! The flowing energy and sharp expressiveness of his paintings influenced my search for form.
Caravaggio stunned me with contrasts and pressure. The plasticity combined with the expression in Conversione di San Paolo still amazes me.
Indeed, the complete freedom came to me after getting acquainted with the works of Kandinsky. Line, point and color here acquired independence from the object being depicted, which is characteristic of an art itself. I understood Kandinsky as a call for the liberation of aesthetics in painting.
What do you and your idols have in common?
I think that it’s full dedication to the creative process.
Is there someone in your life who constantly inspires you?
Yes, this is my husband Sergii Forkosh, he is a philosopher.
How do you react when you faced with a superior mind or talent?
I try to find common ground and learn.
Where are your works appreciated more — in Ukraine or abroad?
I am little known here. I am currently collaborating with the ARX Gallery in London. We are preparing my personal exhibition. I hope it will be possible to implement it soon.
How do you react when faced with stupidity, hostility, intractability, laziness, and indifference in other people?
Tolerable.
When you work, do you like the process or the result better?
I like a picture that is painted at about 50%, where the image is almost completed, but the imagination can still create new details and elements already in the specified dimension.
What is your ideal of creative activity?
Full immersion.
What are you most afraid of?
Not being able to paint.
How do you understand a mastership?
It is a combination of perseverance and diligence.
Fragments of the professional dossier of recent years:
2018
● Personal exhibition Spirit of extinct animals, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2019
● Face of capitalism, participation, Vienna, Austria.
