Lauren’s 2nd Gallery Review: Stas Orlovski

Stas Orlovski; “Nocturnes”
Mixed Greens gallery in New York


I saw this exhibit when visiting galleries in New York with my Advanced Drawing class. We saw over a dozen shows that day, but this was the only one that stood out to me as particularly strong, both aesthetically and technically. Stas Orlovski’s “Nocturnes” was a whimsically somber exhibition dominated by large-scale 2D works with subdued colors and bold use of contrast. The subject matter revolved around several themes: full moons, birds, flora, and water. He used a wide range of techniques and mediums to create his works. The moons were often printed paper, The flora hand painted with ink and embellished with daubs of white paint, the birds sometimes collaged, sometimes hand-drawn. His execution of each work, however, often made it difficult to immediately tell which parts of the images were what. I did not realize the moons were printed until I got up close to study the linework.

His palette was fairly limited, using black, white, and a few neutral tones of blues and browns; the base of his drawings were on yellowed or off-white paper that gave the work a very antiqued look. What was particularly striking to me was the level of detail and texture in each of the works. His work was at once graphic, organic, and delicate, and his use of composition and negative space was very effective. When I researched his work more in depth on the Mixed Greens website, I found out that the inspiration behind this exhibit including Russian children books, Asian ink paintings, and Victorian-era illustrations. These three things describe exactly the look and feel of the exhibit: the subject matter was poetic and child-like, the inkwork has a clear reference to Japanese calligraphy, and the aged and antiqued look, as well as the use of printing, definitely recalled Victorianism. What I liked most about the exhibit, though, was that despite the repetitive themes and colors in each of the individual works, the show itself was not stagnant. Each image was very strong on its own and contributed to the cohesive feel of the exhibit.