From Fellini to Doja Cat: Flora Yukhnovich’s vision of Venus. By Baya Simons
In ancient mythology, the god Saturn turned on his father and castrated him, throwing his dismembered organs into the sea and causing the ocean to foam up. From the boiling water emerged a fully formed Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. It was this legend that inspired British painter Flora Yukhnovich’s latest body of work, part of a new solo exhibition at London’s Victoria Miro gallery next week. “I was immediately drawn to the idea of her body being made of water,” says the artist of her blurred, abstract paintings, often based on historical compositions. “This fluidity of form feels like a very painterly concept to me, a bit like creating seemingly solid figures out of wet paint.”
Image: Flora Yukhnovich, Crème de la Mer, 2022
110 1/4 x 94 1/2 in