Triumph Gallery presents An Image In-Between, the first exhibition of work by Lena Vlasova. The show features an installation, paintings, and works on papers focusing on the elements of urban space that often remain unnoticed.

Beginning her career as an artist in 2019, she focused her studies on blind alleyways, abandoned wastelots, and impassable streets rather than the city as we generally see and perceive it. The grid of metal fencing, or, more precisely, its daunting negative image, was the first object of Vlasova’s creative interest.

Lattice #17
2022
Canvas, charcoal
130 × 150 cm

Triumph Gallery presents An Image In-Between, the first exhibition of work by Lena Vlasova. The show features an installation, paintings, and works on papers focusing on the elements of urban space that often remain unnoticed.

Beginning her career as an artist in 2019, she focused her studies on blind alleyways, abandoned wastelots, and impassable streets rather than the city as we generally see and perceive it. The grid of metal fencing, or, more precisely, its daunting negative image, was the first object of Vlasova's creative interest.

The image of bars and grids entered her graphical work. Vlasova builds an out-of-context ornament, distorts the angles and perspective, changes the point of view, dismantles and warps the grid, elevating the drawing to a geometric abstraction. "Working with the images of fences and metal grids, I bring them closer to pure geometry so that the actual objects, which I use as reference, become almost indistinguishable," says Lena.

In the series of canvases titled A Tad Tired, but that’s Alright and in her works on tracing paper, the artist explores fragments and textures of urban surfaces. To Vlasova, the dilapidation of urban surfaces, the layers that build up over time, and the amalgamations of various elements are akin to mutations. Getting up close to the surfaces, she captures highly abstracted fragments and enlarges them up to canvas dimensions.

From the "Image in Between" series #3
2021
Tracing paper, graphite
50 × 82 cm

The image of bars and grids entered her graphical work. Vlasova builds an out-of-context ornament, distorts the angles and perspective, changes the point of view, dismantles and warps the grid, elevating the drawing to a geometric abstraction. "Working with the images of fences and metal grids, I bring them closer to pure geometry so that the actual objects, which I use as reference, become almost indistinguishable," says Lena.

In the series of canvases titled A Tad Tired, but that’s Alright and in her works on tracing paper, the artist explores fragments and textures of urban surfaces. To Vlasova, the dilapidation of urban surfaces, the layers that build up over time, and the amalgamations of various elements are akin to mutations. Getting up close to the surfaces, she captures highly abstracted fragments and enlarges them up to canvas dimensions.

In Lena Vlasova’s works, some images are abstract on purpose while others retain traces of recognizable objects from our environment. This play on the duality of images and their liminal perception developed by the artist invites the viewer to set aside the familiar optics and try to see something novel in the most common and mundane objects.

Curated by Sofia Kovaleva

Lattice #19
2022
Paper, charcoal
120 x 200 cm

In Lena Vlasova’s works, some images are abstract on purpose while others retain traces of recognizable objects from our environment. This play on the duality of images and their liminal perception developed by the artist invites the viewer to set aside the familiar optics and try to see something novel in the most common and mundane objects.

Curated by Sofia Kovaleva