ZORA RUSINOVA

1996

The compositions of Gabriela Medvedova stem from the analytical tendencies of contemporary European painting. From the beginning, she has been engaged in the reflection and exploration of painting as a medium. This approach has been illustrated in her acrylic canvases, often exploiting combined techniques; table-cloth pattems are deciped as a section of an infinite screen streching beyond the borders of the picture. As if this endeavour exhausted the expressive dimensions of colour and led the artist to the plastic layering of elements of paper decollage and frottage, to an effort to reveal the secret of their textures. Medvedova, too, oscillates within contemporary art trends, replacing the uniform concept of the Cartesian view of the world and the classical perspective by the fragmented perception in motion. Gradually, the playful geometry of compositions temming from uncontrolled impulses, the symbolism of elementary lines and shapes - circles, squares and diagonal lines - have begun to dominate. The distruped rhythm of repeating elements, an omitted interval and an unfinished sample have revealed the unexpected possibilities of simple form poetry.
It seems that abstract thinking more clearly corresponds to the present reality laden with significance, split and phenomenologically shattered. The visual effects, Medvedova achieved by using wax, paper and fire, correspond to this; burnt holes created structures of a "shattered reality" (Workshop - Installation, Hernbaumgarten, 1995). Medvedova´s analytical nature was also illustrated in her exterior spatial installations created from elementary wooden forms (Plaven, park, 1994). The artist´s interior work displayed her ability to use a minimum of expressional means (Vienna, 1995, yellow lines created an illusion of space divided by a glass wall). Even Medvedova´s latest paper decollages and collages display the minimalization and reduction to basic geometric forms, expressing the synthesis of spiritual and physical aspects of creation freed from any depicting relations to reality. In this process light becomes a significant denominator, penetrating compositions suspended in space as pictures-objects, endowing them with the touch of ephemeral, transparent screens with visual affects based on varied thickness of structures.
In her recent productions, Gabriela Medvedova has used luminous pgments, visible from both sides of the composition, thus introducing a playful irrational element into her work.