"JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE MIND" - DARIA DMYTRENKO : La Vitrine - Paris

Intuition, impulse, and lack of complete control—these are the threads weave the tapestry of our subconscious. This enigmatic space, responsible for thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and perceptions beyond our conscious grasp, is a fascinating realm between reason and imagination, sanity and madness. Fascinated by both the beauty and the abomination existing in the impenetrable darkness of our minds, Daria Dmytrenko (1993, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) developed a distinct practice dedicated to discerning and revealing snapshots from her ongoing Journey to the Center of the Mind / Voyage au Centre de l’Esprit.

 

The striking quality of Dmytrenko’s visuals lies in the equilibrium between familiarity and alien-like appearance. The images can be perceived as abstract or surreal while often morphing into vaguely recognizable or plausible forms. An odd limb, a squinting eye, or fur-like surfaces transform her painterly exercises into distinctive forms that seem to possess a history—or at least a story. It’s the employment of multiple, highly unmediated, and purposely obstructed technical methods that condition such idiosyncratic appearance.

My paintings are the incarnation of my subconscious, Dmytrenko summarizes the essence of her practice, which made a sudden shift once the creative freedom encouraged at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice replaced the dogmatic approach at the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture in Kyiv. Holding onto the love for the figure while determined to paint without thinking, elements of pseudo-anatomy are devised intuitively, merging the two disparate mindsets. And everything about her Parisian solo debut fits perfectly with the idea of digging into her subconscious—from creating a series of almost exclusively small-scale pieces on wood in which she’s looking closely at her serendipitous creations to presenting the paintings in a more intimate, unorthodox space.

 

Dmytrenko begins with the traditional, almost meditative levkas method of preparing wooden panels. Tinting the originally beige basswood dark brown, scraping and scratching its surface, adding a sheer canvas covering, and applying and sanding thin layers of gesso and glue help the artist get into the serene and unlocked mindset. Similar to the tradition of icon painting, whose primary purpose was to depict the events and protagonists that allegedly existed, Dmytrenko’s inquisitive and highly experimental takes on the portraiture genre also present imagery whose existence is hard or impossible to prove. Using only its triangular or pyramidal composition, they feel balanced and harmonious while increasing their convincingness and prompting a more intuitive and involved response by looking out at the viewer.

 

Her exploration of the abyssal zones of the mind continues by building the composition and the chromatic scheme with expressive marks of mostly earthy, subdued shades. Thinking about the impossibility of commanding subconsciousness, Dmytrenko is intrigued by how the medium and factors beyond her control influence the outcome. Therefore, the technical qualities of the materials are adopted as part of the thoughtful methodology. Such as the gesso’s porous surface absorbing the pigment and creating a somewhat fading, fresco-like appearance. Once vaguely defined, the image gets treated with a more meticulous brushwork and often tedious, almost ritualistic painterly process. The volumes and depth start taking shape by refining the forms and lavish surfaces with intricate marks. As the work nears completion, some parts get diluted with turpentine to conceal any intentionally or consciously resolved passages. These newly created shapes proposed by chemical reaction become entry points to the previously unknown areas of the mind’s deep sea.

 

Evoking the appearance of creatures living in the ocean’s darkness or the shape of a cave rock formation, Dmytrenko’s visuals are equally timeless as they are antique, real as chimeric, and defined as concealed. The purposefully constructed eerie ambiance around such apparitions conveys distrust and perhaps fear of what might exist in remote areas of our minds. Guided by intuition and the emotive state fueled by the current moods and ones pulled from the depth of memory, the ambiance oscillates from darkened murk to areas of lush vibrancy. From the memories of rural Ukraine to the buzz of Venetian canals, from personally significant moments to universally recognizable cues. While summoning her innermost thoughts and visions with the pigment on the wood surface or canvas, Dmytrenko is determined to rigorously rummage through her subconscious in search of who or what lives at the center of her mind.

 

— Saša Bogojev