Stas Orlovski: Troika

Opening: Sunday, April 3, 3 – 5pm

895 Colusa Ave. Berkeley, CA 94717

Thursday – Saturday, 10am – 4pm, by appointment

Traywick Contemporary is pleased to announce Troika, a multi-media exhibition of drawings, paintings and animated projections by Los Angeles artist Stas Orlovski. This will be his fifth solo show at Traywick Contemporary.

Orlovski’s art-making is deeply rooted in what the artist calls a “collage aesthetic.” He incorporates a variety of media and a range of sources to create a hybrid practice that encompasses both still and moving images. Oscillating between dream and reality, his work incorporates seemingly disconnected images that reference a variety of sources: Japanese ukiyo-e prints, Victorian scrapbooks, Russian folklore, and even Dutch Botanical illustrations. In his still work, he combines printmaking, drawing, transfer, collage and painting which results in rich layers of material and visual content. Since 2012, Orlovski has worked with stop-motion animation as an extension of his drawing practice, describing the resulting projected images as “interventions that move.” Employing both digital and analog animation techniques, he activates his work in unexpected ways while gracefully merging two and three-dimensions.

For the exhibition Troika, Orlovski presents recent works on canvas and paper along with a new site-specific installation, including sculptural forms that act as screens for the animated projections. Configured as if setting a stage, the central work to the show, also titled Troika, is comprised of three life-size silhouettes based on objects that recur throughout his work. Two smaller hand-cut bronze sculptures serve as vessels for more intimate animations and moving image sequences. As flashing rain storms, crumbling structures and flocking birds disappear and reappear across the sculpture surfaces, the installation becomes a hypnotic sensory experience of wonder and mystery. Rather than a linear narrative, Orlovski’s work is full of visual surprise where romantic landscapes are filled with non-sequitur objects and nostalgia is interrupted by the reality of human and natural forces.

Stas Orlovski received an MFA from the University of Southern California in 1996. His work is featured in prominent private and public collections including the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Phoenix Art Museum, the University of Southern California and the American Embassy in Brussels. Orlovski is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painting & Sculpture Award, the City of Los Angeles Individual (COLA) Artist Grant and a J. Paul Getty Trust Fellowship. In 2012, he was commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to create a site-specific, animated installation in conjunction with the exhibition, Drawing Surrealism. In 2014, Orlovski had a solo exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art and exhibited his multi-media installation “Chimera” at the 56th Venice Biennale as part of the critically-acclaimed exhibition “We Must Risk Delight.”