Flora Yukhnovich’s art boldly explores materiality and process as vehicles for meaning, with cascading and swirling forms evoking rhythm and energy to flow between representation and abstraction. She has attracted critical admiration for immersive paintings in which glimpses of art historical styles, from French rococo and Italian baroque to abstract expressionism, are spliced with references drawn from contemporary films, music, literary sources and consumer culture.
Through her work, Yukhnovich astutely addresses dynamics of power inherent in received readings of art historical subjects and their associated hierarchies, in particular, by questioning notions of femininity and gender that are hard-wired into the aesthetic language of colour and form. Along with the intensely corporeal characteristics of her work and the visceral impact of her painterly gestures, Yukhnovich’s selected titles—for example, ‘Warm Wet N’ Wild’ (2020) and ‘Maybe She’s Born With It’ (2022)—provide coordinates which reference consumer and popular culture.
Born in Norwich, United Kingdom (1990), Yukhnovich’s characteristic painting language emerged during a period of study as a Fine Art student at City & Guilds of London Art School, where she completed her MA in 2017. Prior to this she undertook portraiture studies at The Heatherley School of Fine Art in London.
Image: Flora Yukhnovich, A Taste of a Poison Paradise, 2023 © Flora Yukhnovich. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Victoria Miro
