“Through the Veil of Reality”: A Personal Exhibition of Tatyana Kostenko and Alexander Osin in the Halls of IACA

In March 2024, the house-museum of N.N. Sednin – supported by the International Academy of Contemporary Arts and the Professional Union of Artists of Russia – held an exhibition of Honorary Artists of Russia Tatyana Kostenko and Alexander Osin.

Multiple winners of the international art competition known as Art. Excellence. Awards. presented the guests with a retrospective of their work.

The creative union of Tatyana Kostenko and Alexander Osin won high awards in the fashion category. In addition to creating masterpieces of designer costumes, artists have engaged in various mediums such as painting, graphics, and figurative and artistic compositions with original colors.

The exhibition displays works of graphics and painting by Alexander Osin, paintings by Tatyana Kostenko and works in which storylines unite artists.

The work of Alexander Osin is multifaceted and full of meaning. As a talented draftsman, he is capable of almost all graphic techniques. He is especially inspired by the works of old masters, turning to whom he creates his series of conventionally realistic still-life paintings with abstract symbolic forms. Turning to the surrealist tradition allows him to create complex compositional works with unique meanings and recognizable fantasy images.

Alexander Osin’s plot ideas revolve around the human being and its essence. The nature of human vices is especially well-reflected in the trilogy cycle What is a Man? – which includes such works as Bulimia, Anorexia, and Gourmets. The artist’s reflections on material carnal love are revealed through spiritual, metaphysical concepts, and the roles of women in the lives of men and society are depicted in symbolic figurative artistic language. Thus, a characteristic feature of his work is the depiction of immaterial spiritual concepts using realistic artistic techniques, and the author depicts the material world by resorting to figurative and symbolic metaphysical concepts. This approach is confirmed by the composition Trojan Horse, where the famous mythological image is as realistic as possible and detailed down to the veins under translucent skin.

Alexander Osin’s graphics are dominated by Irony and Satire. Attention is paid to instilling high feelings and ideals in the viewer, and well-known proverbs and sayings are illustrated from a new, non-standard angle.

The work of Tatyana Kostenko is characterized by constructivist features, graphic design, and bright color schemes. At the same time, a subtle plot line traces the display of the socio-social structure of society. With external decorativeism, the works are full of drama and mixed feelings and emotions that reveal the ambiguous relationships of the characters. In her works, she raises questions of moral norms and social principles, so in the images of cute cats, a sensitive viewer can read the complexity of human relationships in society.

Turning to the impressionistic tradition, Tatyana Kostenko easily switches the viewer’s mood to an easy and relaxed stroll through the streets of European cities, adding a touch of spontaneity and coquetry. Her Travels series preserves sincere impressions of the beauty of the cities that she was lucky enough to see.

Among the stylistic features of her works, deviations from realistic pictorial norms, play with the viewer, clear, clearly readable images, bright emotions expressed by color techniques, and non-standard interior solutions prevail. Tatyana Kostenko also often makes frames part of the design of her works. When the image moves onto the frame, the effect is created as if the world of the work of art opens into the common space of the hall.

The unity of the creative tandem of artists is reflected in all works and at all stages of the creative process – from discussion of the plot to the implementation of the plan in all materials and techniques. At the same time, the individual handwriting of each author and freedom of artistic expression are preserved.

Portraits of celebrities and famous people were part of the exhibition. Each portrait is made in the special figurative and stylistic vision of the authors instead of photographic accuracy, providing an impression of the personality as a whole. The central work of the exhibition was the portrait composition The Yalta Conference (1945), where the authors again resorted to their original stylistic principles of depicting the intangible as material: the images of the heads of state of the USSR, USA, and Great Britain were made in the form of coins from those years.

Appeal to the heritage of Russian and world culture is an integral part and the main unifying line of inspiration for the creative union of Alexander Osin and Tatyana Kostenko. Thanks to their skill and contribution to the development of modern culture and art, the artists were warmly received by the professional community.

Olga Veretina, Art critic Honorary Artist of Russia, Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Contemporary Arts.