Lada Shapovalova. “Pillow Book”.

By Anna Svergun

 “VP Gallery” invites you to an opening of Lada Shapovalova’s exhibition “Pillow Book”. One could wonder: what does connect ten absolutely different paintings, those are presented in Vera Pogodina’s gallery? In one of them there is a pink horse flying in the sky, in another – a loving couple is admiring the view, in a third one – a mother is holding her baby for the first time… Desultory memories of a city artist Lada Shapovalova are submitted to the audience and united by a theme of the “Pillow Book”, or intimate notes. This genre of a maiden novel was invented in the X century by Sei Shonagon – a maid of honor at the Japanese Emperor Court.

Lada Shapovalova is her worthy follower. She attaches importance to seemingly insignificant details, winning with desire to share her emotions with the audience. At the exhibition there will be presented ten works followed by some extracts from the Artist’s notes and the “Pillow Book” by Sei Shonagon.

This makes a written within eleven centuries story of the two women, who are trying to describe not only surrounding things, but also feelings, impressions, thoughts, paradoxically similar despite a century-long abyss.

Lada’s comments on the project: “I paint. Canvas, oil, tempera. Everything is quite traditional. Themes are not new either – they are stories of impressions, pages of a diary. Something that has “touched”, agitated, sailed out of the depth of memory. Like coloured glasses in a kaleidoscope. I enjoy listening to myself. And a way a person takes the world seems to me most interesting. A push, an impulse that is born by something real. Walls, clouds, shadows… Emotions. Correlations of colour planes and forms. It is exactly colour and form those are able to reproduce spring “anxiety”, twilight watchfulness, summer midday drowsiness. Everybody’s life consists of moments, “déjà vu”. I want to “catch” these moments and “keep” them on canvas. I want to share them with this entire world that is “alive and shining”.

 © 2018  -  Lada Shapovalova