Ta Barbanakova
T
he human condition and its surrounding environs, from the deeply spiritual connections between people to the profoundly simple objects of everyday life, are the inspiration for painter Ta Barbanakova. Her awareness and attention to the smallest nuances in her day-to-day ventures provide her with the matter upon which her paintings are founded. "A Stroll" is an example of how observing someone in their daily routine may provoke a connection between the artist and her subject. The decadent use of color and paint in this work dazzle the eye while the subject, a woman walking her dog through the park, subdues the soul and offer her audience a simple slice-of-life.
Barbanakova's style is supremely painterly, objects emerge from the heavy strokes as impressions. The details are in the feelings evoked from the scene. The woman walks with a serene expression as her dog ambles forward sniffing the air. Foliage encroaches gently upon the figure; the caress of nature is a blessing of the simple life. "My paintings are my thoughts," she explains, "my childhood memories that are calling me back, new experiences and my dreams that drive me forward."
Barbanakova, in her search to portray the human condition, has explored the use of metaphor and personification. "In Full Sail" is highly successful work, painted with her signature impasto technique, relating the excitement and wonder of embarking upon life's journey. In this piece the ocean is the device used to evoke a passage or voyage, and floating amongst the waves is a colorful house placed in a sailboat. The image is teeming with joy and excitement as the unruly
waters reflect the brilliant hues of the early morning sky and the windows of the house radiate the warm glow from within. Typical of her works, "In Full Sail" suggests a number of different readings; here the idea and location of home is not sedentary but portable. Poignantly left out of the work is a beginning or an end, suggesting that upon this voyage, as in life, there is no destination but only the journey.
Barbanakova was born in Krasnodar, Russia in 1975. She earned her MFA at the Kuban State University and has focused on her career as an artist since 1997. She has exhibited widely throughout Germany and Russia, and continues to gain recognition, recently acquiring representation in the United States. Ta Barbanakova lives and works in Voronezh, Russia.