Natalia Ostapenko

Natalia Ostapenko (born in 1990, Ukraine) is a visual artist based in Lille, in France. She has developed a very refined and graphic abstract style, which creates kaleidoscopic geometric compositions with pallets of evocative and carefully refined colors. This rigorously executed approach is based on his past experience as a designer and refers to historical painting movements such as the flattened forms of the still lifes of Cubistes, the search for colors in expressive painting and the increased brightness of impressionist landscapes. His abstract works are strongly associated with our visual experience in the world, for example, the imitation of changing light at dawn or the happy patchwork of summer colors in nature. His work also refers to the applied and popular decorative arts such as patchwork, marquetry and decorations painting, in its use of patterns, of which Ostapenko acquired knowledge during his first years of study. The idea of ​​collage is important in his work. Some recall modernist works in cut paper, others have the appearance of superimposed layers, creating an impression of depth. In her compositions, she plays both with symmetry and variation. Natalia Ostapenko mainly uses acrylic on canvas and each work is meticulously preceded by research and sketches. The artist has integrated the airbrush into his process, using it as a way to make mixtures and gradations of subtle colors but also to add narrative. For example, in Memories, 2021, a semi-opaque layer partially obscures the right side of the canvas, revealing the linear process of both the manufacture of painting and memory.