Irena Orlov: matter and color

Small objects of everyday life, birds, flowers and landscapes are the protagonists of the Irena Orlov's images, whether they're paintings on wood, watercolors or drawings. And then: bright colors, sharp lines, shades and unusual materials populate the artworks of this artist of Ukrainian origin who moved to the United States.

First of all, I was struck by the choice of the support of several paintings: wooden planks. Lists and boards not smooth, in which knots and filaments are clearly visible, arrange a "canvas" for the drawing and become an enrichment of the paintings. The natural color of the wood, merged with tempera and watercolors, creates a truly original and unusual outcomes.

In these artworks coexist natural elements, architectural monuments and portraits of famous people. Orlov represents them sometimes stylized, sometimes referring to the pop art, other ones combining different elements. She always creates original and never dull illustrations.

Portraits of animals, flowers, natural landscapes and big cities views are joined by a two-dimensional appearance, which may create a surreal, unrecognizable and very poetic atmosphere. Up to the abstract patterns, where we can find large open circles above forms of pure color.

A few significant strokes mark the figures: trees, details, live wires and then the space is left at the disposal of the color, always very bright, which remains bounded in specific areas - for animals and objects, for example - or expands itself in spots until the fade - for landscapes and abstract paintings, for example. Again the wood, chapped and crumbled, shines as background of the paintings. They seem like words, impalpable signs of other stories and contexts, arrived here to welcome a new energy.

The energy of this traveler artist (with a career as architect and designer) is what frees from these artworks, so cheerful and understandable at first glance.

Works that smell of joy of life, trips and creativity.

Anna Mola, independent critic and curator, based in Italy. annamola.wordpress.com/

The Amazing Mixed-Media Paintings and Collages of Irena Orlov
 

Irena Orlov is a mixed media artist with the unique ability to merge old world themes and media with modern technique and expression.  I found her artwork to be very refreshing and inspiring as well as powerful in evoking a sense of wonder.  Each piece is rich with an underlying energy and vitality that expresses her passion about her work.  When I view her work I feel like I am getting a glimpse into a cross-section of her heart and soul.  Her blend of color, images, textures and backgrounds is simply amazing.  She achieves such a balance in the way these elements work together you would think that they always belonged together and could not be expressed in any other way.

She takes old newspapers from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, or other documents, papers and materials and blends them together, painting unique patterns, images and abstractions on top of them to construct a collage of color and images that visually portrays a merging of thoughts and concepts that speaks to the soul.  So complete and balanced is her merging of both the physical media and the art styles that the body of her work comes across as a kind of  “postmodern impressionistic, imagistic, surrealistic abstractionism.”  You just have to see it to believe it.  The balance and beauty of it is astounding.

You can also see elements of her background in architecture and design portrayed in her work.  Many of her abstractions have an industrial edge to them.  I can easily picture her art enhancing the atmosphere of any room in a home or office setting, so when I discovered that she is a successful interior designer, it made complete sense.  She knows how to compose a piece that does not get old.  There is plenty in each painting to intrigue the viewer time and time again.  It is the kind of art I love to stare at and just take in.  I appreciate the way all the elements work together brilliantly, and I enjoy how it inspires a plethora of thoughts, feelings, attitudes, emotions and ideas.

Irena is a Ukrainian artist who has lived in the Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Canada and the United States.  She now resides in California and works in Los Angeles where she has made a name for herself in interior design.

You will not be disappointed in any way by Irena Orlov’s work.  There is a depth to it that makes it worth viewing time after time and a quality in it that calls to the soul.  But I also have to warn you about one thing, after seeing her work you will not be satisfied until you have some of it hanging on your walls.  

by: David E. Navarro (Chief Editor at NavWorks Press and admirer of all things artistic)

Irena Orlov: A Contemporary Piece of the Past

You might say that Irena Orlov has an eccentric style, or in the very least a novel approach to the contemporary.  The discarded remnants of past centuries are her canvas, she takes newspapers from the 17th and 18th century and turns them into contemporary abstract art – with a touch of the antique.  The newspapers give her paintings a unique texture and liveliness, while her eye for aesthetic principles seems an afterthought, unintentional, and at times subconscious.  It may very well be that her architectural background allows her to interpret the newspaper stories as they affect her thoughts, or as she puts it, “My art is my soul’s response to reality.”

Just knowing what she is painting on gives her work a ghostly quality – a depth so often lacking in modern contemporary art – that sparks the imagination, and the feeling is magnified when face to face with her work.  It’s almost as if her paintings want to tell a story. In creating her work Irena said she feels “as if there is a connection between me and a person who held the same newspaper centuries ago,” if anything, it would be difficult for art connoisseurs  not to have that same feeling.  Irena’s work manages to capture something spectacular, like a frosted mirror, or a disjointed kaleidoscopic vision of the past.  In any case she has a style that would fit right into a gallery showing, or on any dining room wall for that matter.

On her website Irena displays quite a bit of variety, and it looks like there’s more to come: landscapes, floral paintings, and some expertly crafted collages. Altogether she displays a rather impressive level of diversity, but always maintains a true sense of direction.  She also has work available on Fine Art America that is worth viewing, that should tide us over until – hopefully – she does another gallery showing here in L.A.  For those of you who aren’t Angelinos, well, you have my condolences.

8/19/11

Writer Quandary

Malakai Mohica  

​