Julia Lambright/ Artist Statement/Work

/ working statement / julialambright.com/

I am of two identities. Having emigrated from Russia to the United States, I recognized new possibilities for myself, while re-envisioning the cultural, social and political climate of present day Russia. The work I am presenting investigates the themes that are nourished by my unrelenting temptation to translate contemporary Russian problems to an American audience.

For Russia, the twentieth century was mostly cruel. I believe the founding principles of communist ideology were destructive, even though revolutionary enthusiasts announced their intention to build a new world. The construction of this new world led to many consequences over the last century, including physical and moral stress on ordinary people. Living in America helped me to look outside the boundary and these issues and further understand my anger about the system in which people have been treated unfairly. At the same time as being dislocated from my native land, I feel a much stronger need to explore sacred art.

For the past few years I looked to Russian Orthodox icon paintings as a main source of inspiration. For me they became a core element of understanding of an outer form with an inner content, as a human vision and human visage. Also an icon’s formal aesthetics, from its static and free-floating figures to its flattened perspective, and chromatic richness of the coloring, strongly impacts my artistic decisions in current studio practices.

 As a result, I am working on a series of paintings that will come together to form a high-rise wall. This painting installation is planned to be assembled in a three-tier structure, one that will resemble an Iconostasis (a wall of icons in Orthodox Church.) The structured wall also stands as a metaphor for a physical border line, with means to expand the limits of our own vision… In its entirety, I hope to ‘build’ a sense of narrative that will explore social issues of Russia, perhaps also reflect our universal realities, and thereby to explain human responsibilities… For me it starts in a desire to create a spiritual space with the hope of awaking a range of human emotions, a space that will challenge understanding of the past and reinforce awareness of the present.