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| Katerina Belkina is a Russian photographer, who puts the 'self-portrait' phenomenon in a new setting. With unprecedented technical precision, Belkina uses the refined possibilities of digital photography in order to present a disquieting image of the new woman in a postmodern world. Work and concept: Katerina Belkina's work is one large statement of the seeking human being. In her work she shows herself as a distant character in different roles, thus putting her own individuality into perspective, while at the same time addressing the viewer. As a modern, makeable creature, the woman is turned into a new heroine in the story which is both recognizable and mysterious. Does she coincide with the archetypal figures from age-old fairy tales and folk tales (Blue Beard, Little Red Riding Hood, The Little Mermaid, Odette, Rose Red and Snow White) in which her role as a woman seemed clearly defined, or does an underlying layer appear, which disrupts this assumed familiarity? The seriousness with which she presents her portrayed self to the viewer both alarms and fascinates. Her crystal-clear representations, which are at the same time of a strong pictorial character, are mainly aimed face-forward. This portrayal method strips the works of an anecdotal overtone and gives them the conceptual and abstract connotation of Russian icons. The idea put into a human form. Katerina Belkina is an artist who views man as a creature who looks for the boundaries of the connection with the universe by using soul and reason. As the confrontation with the impossibility thereof is great, he creates his own universe. In her most recent series "Empty Spaces" this takes on the form of a metropolis. However, this urbanized world is artificial and purely materialistic and, as a tiny dot in this constructed whole, man feels even more lonely and abandoned. In this sense, Belkina's characters are constructed anew. In her vision, the metropolis has created a new type of human, in which only a hint of consciousness of the connection with the true universe is present. Biography Katerina Belkina was born in Samara, a city in the South-East of the European part of Russia. She grew up in an artistic atmosphere; her mother is a visual artist and, in her place of birth, she got an education in the art of painting at the Art Academy. In Moscow, she continued her education in 2000 at an Academy for Photography and exhibitions of her mysterious self-portraits ensued in Moscow and Paris. Katerina Belkina was nominated for the prestigious Kandinsky Prize (comparable to the British Turner prize) in Moscow in 2007, for which Samuel Keller was one of the judges. Gallery Lilja Zakirova, who discovered her during the exhibition of the nominees for this award, has been representing Belkina since 2008 in her gallery in the Netherlands. At the moment, Katerina Belkina is living and working in Moscow. | |
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