Natasha Dikareva

“Call Me What You Want” at Abrams Claghorn Gallery

I am happy to announce I will be part of a great group show at Abrams Claghorn Gallery in September! The show’s title “Call Me What You Want” reflects the idea that all the categories and classifications out there are really arbitrary constructs. The show focuses on works which strip away the unnecessary and reveal the core of what we all share.

My pieces, Heavenly 100 and One With the Source, will be shown.

I hope to see you at the opening on Saturday, September 16th, 5-7pm!
Show Dates: September 3 – 30, 2017

1251 Solano Ave. Albany CA 94706 – (510) 526 9558

http://abramsclaghorn.com/call-me-what-you-want

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Here is a bit more about each of the works:

Heavenly 100
I was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine. I emigrated to the United States to escape the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Although I have been living in the United States for over 20 years, I still feel a strong connection to the city of my birth. It hurts me to see what is happening in my native country.

Ukraine is going through one of the most blood-soaked times in its nearly 25-year history as an independent nation. In the fall and winter of 2013–2014, more than one hundred civilian protesters were killed. Most of them were shot by snipers from behind police lines. But Ukrainians do not call their dead comrades “victims.” Instead, they call them “heroes” or the “Heavenly Hundred” and believe that the lives of these people will change the country for the better.

I dedicate the Heavenly Hundred installation to the memory of the heroes who sacrificed their lives during the Euromaidan protests. Each little bird with a face on it symbolizes the soul of the hero. Together they are flying skyward, reminding us of their immortal spirits.

I am sad such cruel events are happening in Ukraine and it is hard to believe that so many people died in a European country in the 21st century. But I am also very proud of my nation and I think the Ukrainian people deserve the positive changes that their thoughts and actions have set in motion.

One With the Source
It is often difficult to share private aspects of my life, yet this work expands beyond personal boundaries. When my mom was at the last stages of her life, she told us she did not want any specific religious ceremonies. She wanted to be cremated and have her ashes scattered in beautiful places. In moments of great discomfort during the transition to another world, she would pray out loud in her own words, asking God to take her soul and to release her from her body. I had never heard her praying before; where I come from people do not pray out loud. It turns out my mom was a truly spiritual person without any apparent religious ties.This experience inspired me to create the sculpture One With the Source. This hybrid being carries symbols of many religions coexisting on a fluid surface. Unity does not mean sameness yet all religions strive to be closer to Divinity. I hope humanity will continue to grow in understanding and love for each other as we recognize the differences between religions as parts of a bigger whole. We are all particles of the Divine being. We are all One.

Teapots!11

If you’re in the Pittsburgh area this Friday, come see the teapot interpreted by over 60 artists in the 11th annual Teapot Invitational at Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery! Two of my teapots were chosen to be part of this great show.

I don’t know if it is my Eastern European roots, bathed in a constant stream of tea since childhood, or the chance to play with the suggestive forms of spouts and handles, but I love making teapots! These swan fairies might reveal the answers for which you have been longing with the right brew inside them.
Opening reception is April 7th 5:30-8:30 pm. Show runs April 7 to June 10.

Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery

5833 Ellsworth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Phone: 412.441.5200

 

‘Zone In’ with Paige Wright at Oregon’s Finest in Portland

Portland Show Open Through March 25th

I’m very excited to announce our latest venue show, currently up and running at Oregon’s Finest in Portland, Oregon. I’ve partnered with local Portland sculptor Paige Wright for this exhibition, and we’re fortunate enough to be located directly across the street from the Oregon Convention Center, where the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts’ (NCECA) 51st Annual Conference (Future Flux) takes place March 22nd through the 25th.

Much like mine, Paige Wright’s work touches on the profound effects of environment on human beings, meditating on biological, climatological and social transformation, and posing questions of identity and collective awareness. We both favor traditional clay techniques and work with multi-layered surfaces that evoke both antiquity and mortality. As ever, the best work reflects the changing social, cultural and ecological environment from which it springs, and this is our common goal.

Entitled ‘Zone In,’ the work in the exhibition explores issues of transformation, sustainability and the tension between permanence and changing modes in the evolving global community. And NCECA’s Future Flux is the perfect place for us to connect with the public and other artists. At well over 5,000 attendees, this is the largest event of its kind each year. It’s going to be an eye-opening, inspiring four days of workshops, lectures and the most talented exhibitors in the country. We’re proud to be part of it, and we’d love for you to join us.

The exhibition runs through the end of the NCECA conference, which will be held March 22-25.

Zone In: Natasha Dikareva and Paige Wright
Oregon’s Finest
736 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
Portland, OR  97232

 

 

Welcome To My Blog!

Welcome! Today marks the launch of my new DikarevArt Blog. As a ceramic sculptor and installation artist living in San Francisco, I am constantly creating, and my work is ever-changing. My blog will regularly showcase my newest works, both during their fabrication and as finished pieces.

Sharing here some of the esoteric processes and techniques that I employ will serve to give readers a clearer insight into my creative approach. I will also shine a light on the work of other accomplished artists I admire in various genres, and explore some of the daily inspirations that feed and inform my creativity.

Through the new blog, I’ll also keep readers up to date on upcoming exhibitions, ensuring you know exactly when and where to see my latest works. A clearing house for all things DikarevArt, this blog will be the single best way to stay up to date on my creative output and development as an artist.

Alice: Positive Anxiety by Natasha Dikareva

Entitled Alice: Positive Anxiety, the new piece you see in the photo above was completed during the tumult of the recent election. Hand built in the whitest porcelain and finished with china painting, it is a work imbued with complex, conflicting emotions. Though Alice’s despair is evident in her pose and the mascara that colors her cheeks, a diminished hope still radiates from her eyes; one hand held over her mouth in surprise, in her other she holds a butterfly, a symbol of the ephemerality of happiness.

Juxtaposing smoothly finished surfaces with raw textures that evoke fossils and found objects, this piece is at once optimistic and melancholy, condensing longing, loss and desire into a statement of resilience and possibility.

For a look at other finished artworks from my Escapists series click here, and don’t forget to visit dikarevart.com often to see my latest work.

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