Dot-to-Dot with Natalia Zourabova
This guest post is the first of a series of interviews entitled “Do-To-Dot”, conducted by Ronny Koren.
Ronny Koren (born 1990, Israel) studies Art History and East Asia Studies at Tel Aviv University.
Future Online Specialist at Google. Former Assistant at Dvir Gallery. She is also an independent curator and movie maker.
Dot-to-Dot – with Natalia Zourabova By Ronny Koren
Natalia Zourabova (born 1975, Russia) is a Tel Aviv-Jaffa based artist. In her works Zourabova focuses on every-day platitudinous moments that she imports into grand canvases, using bright, vivid colors. Zourabova is a pioneer of the New Barbizon Group, which points up reality as the means for artistic inspiration.
Natalia Zourabova’s current show “Painting of Tomorrow” is at Rosenfeld Gallery, ending on May 2nd.
Ronny Koren (RK): Who is an artist?
Natalia Zourabova (NZ): An artist sees above the “Common Sense” and is able to transform this vision into some form.
Natalia Zourabova, Untitled, Russia, oil on canvas, 200×150 cm
RK: Describe me your Muse.
NZ: I don’t have any Muse.
RK: Francis Bacon- “…one needs the specific image to unlock the deeper sensations and the mystery of accident and intuition to create a particular.” Can you point on an image, which led you into depth?
NZ: I think here Bacon continues his idea about the Abstract Painting, which he says: “Is nothing and about nothing and one needs the specific image to unlock the sensations”, but I am working from the observation and claim for realism so I don’t need any other image beside life itself.
Painting outside
RK: Do you dream or remember your dreams? Do they affect you at all?
NZ: Of course I dream. Sometimes I remember my dreams and some of them affect my life, which I cannot control.
RK: Which stuff currently affects your work?
NZ: Life.
RK: How do you experience the contemporary art scene in Tel Aviv?
NZ: I seldom go to Art openings; I usually feel that it is difficult for me to “digest” Art. Last year I dived into the New Barbizon’s context to draw outside together as a group, but sometimes I still find myself working in studios. I love working in this crazy city; it gives a lot of inspirations. I think the art scene in Tel Aviv today is “fresh”.
Visitor at Natalia Zourabova’s show
RK: What do you think; can a Smartphone camera create a valid masterpiece?
NZ: No idea. I don’t use Smartphone camera to create my masterpieces.
RK: What is your next project?
NZ: En Plein Air in the Negev.
RK: What is your favorite color?
NZ: Every color is my favorite. I like brownish-earth colors, all kinds of dark blues, yellow is the easiest color for me, red is the most complicated.
Exhibition View- Natalia Zourabova’s current show at Rosenfeld Gallery
RK: Please take a photo of a list of 5 things, or milestones, in your art career. in your hand-writing.
Natalia Zourabova’s dot-to-dot