Alexander Ryashin

Artist Statement

On cycles, light, and the things that return.

I was born in Siberia, in a place where the seasons don't blend into each other. Each one arrives all at once and takes over completely. I grew up watching the sun disappear for months, come back suddenly, set the landscape on fire and then bury it in snow. That memory of the year turning has stayed with me. Today I live and work in Ljubljana. The seasons here are gentler, but the rhythm is the same, and the further I am from Siberia, the more clearly I see it in everything.

My work keeps coming back to this rhythm. Seasons shows it in four canvases, each built around the same bright sun. Elements splits it into four panels: Water, Fire, Air and Earth. Dance of Life puts the whole cycle into one figure, a dancer at the centre of all four times of day. Other paintings, such as Birth, Son, 1 and Dream, ask the same questions through the people closest to me. I'm drawn to things that come back: birth, the elements, the seasons, and the small things we notice every day.

I paint from the centre outwards. The bright core goes down first, thick and almost sculpted, and the rest of the canvas is built around it in circular strokes of palette knife and oil. I have worked as a graphic designer for more than twenty years, and that taught me composition and how the eye moves across a surface. In painting, though, I let go of clean edges and leave the marks of my hand visible. I want people to see the energy and movement that made each surface.

For me, painting is a way of paying attention. I hope my work makes you stop long enough to notice the turning of the year, and to find the same steady warmth at the centre of every change.

Alexander Ryashin