PRESENT CONTINUOUS OR THE MYSTERY OF THE EVERYDAY
Natalya Zaloznaya combines a conceptual style with the imagination of romantic dreams: the desire to be able to fly, to encompass the
world, to be drawn in by the magic of the moment. Her works express a connection between the present and the past, between time and space. In a series of works from 2011, she painted an antique amphi theatre from a bird’s eye perspective. The depths of the arena
show swarms of minuscule human figures, while the structure of the stands at the same time seem to represent the lines of a finger
print. Here, the Antiquities as foundation for our civilization coincide with the extremely personal. Somewhere in between these two elements,
in between the universal, monumental space of culture and the intimate, tactile space of the private body lies the free universe
of the self. This illustrates everything that makes this series, entitled Vol libre, programmatic for Zaloznaya’s oeuvre.
In the 30 years of her artistic practice, Natalya Zaloznaya has created a multitude of poetic realities. As an essential part of her method
she produces series of paintings, each of which has its own theme and usually its own specific technique. The artist regularly combines
painting on canvas with other techniques, like collages with paper soaked in oil paint, scratching the surface of the paint or by adding
sand or marble powder to the ground layer of the painting. These textured finishes underline the status of the painting as an object.
But also when ’purely’ painting – usually in acrylic – Zaloznaya turns the coat of paint into a tangible surface by applying multiple
layers to the canvas. She paints over previous images but in this process makes sure that traces of the previous image remain visible,
testifying to what once was. This technique is sometimes reminiscent of the many layers that make up traditional Russian icons. An icon
is a sacred object and this is a quality that also springs to mind when looking at Zaloznaya’s paintings and objects. Her technique
has been compared to that of the medieval palimpsest – a page of precious parchment from which the text is scraped off, so that
it could be reused.1 However, the original text remains visible beneath the new text, adding an extra layer of meaning to the document.