23 June 2008

Valerie Demianchuk

Valerie Demianchuk (Courtesy of the artist)

(The following article is taken from the U.S. Department of State publication, Art on the Edge: 17 Contemporary American Artists.)

Wing (detail), 2000. Pencil on paper. (Courtesy of George Adams Gallery, New York, NY)

"By stripping the represented object of color, graphite drawing has the advantage of directing the viewer's attention toward that which is intrinsic to the object itself, such as its shape or the structural relations among its parts. In my drawings, I intensify this focus on the intrinsic nature of objects by freeing them from the viewer's prior associations and conceptualizations. I do this by extracting objects from their natural (usual or expected) environments and suspending them in the amorphously open and neutrally white space of the drawing paper. I think of the viewer's interaction with my objects as a solitary visual journey – a private experience made all the more possible by the intimate scale of graphite drawing and its encouragement of very close visual examination."

[Valerie Demianchuk (b. 1972, Kiev, Ukraine) studied at the Pratt Institute, New York City (BFA 1998), and in addition to several grants and scholarships, received a Pratt Circle Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement (1998). She began her studies at Schevchenko Art School in Kiev (1991). Her drawings have been on view at George Adams Gallery, New York City (2001); Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock (2001); Arnot Art Museum, Elmire, New York (2001); and Tatistcheff Gallery, New York City (2000, 1999). Her work is housed in several public collections including those of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii; and the Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina. Demianchuk lives and works in New York City.]