Over the last several months, I’ve set projects in motion that will come to fruition in 2025 — the biggest of which is my first solo exhibition of art quilts, at the County Arts Lab, from July 17th to 27th. Mark your calendar, you won’t want to miss it!
This show is called ‘Emergence’ and marks my official ‘coming out’ as an Artist. I chose this title and theme because it denotes the “process of coming into existence, of becoming important or prominent, of being exposed (or perhaps revealed) after a period of concealment”. In its latin form, emergere means ‘to bring to light’ — with ‘light’ historically used as a metaphor for conscious awareness.
This concept of emergence orients my work — which is about making objects with which to think through the complexity of our multi-faceted lives. Indeed, my work embraces the complexity of the self, societies and systems. My quilts illustrate this complexity in a joyful and non-threatening way — for I believe that most of the anxieties of our times emanate from our resistance to accept that complexity is a key characteristic of reality.
Quilts are a powerful medium for expressing this because their presence and beauty directly comes from the ‘coming together’ of hundreds or thousands of pieces, becoming something — an image and a comforting object — that individually and apart, they could never have been!
In making my show quilts, I am not only developing my skills and style… but also revealing who I am at my core — a visionary Soul with a rich inner world. I am dedicated to making my most authentic work — drawing on the power of my intellect, the breath of my imagination and the strength of my heart. This feels both right and scary.
Since my beginnings as an artist/painter, I’ve connected with the figure of a winged being, birthed on Earth through trials of fire. This past year, I came to understand that I resonate with the energy of a Phoenix — prone to rebirth and looking at the world from a bird’s eye perspective. Thus, ‘Emergence’ is not only my symbolic birth as the Artist Viktoria Brave — but it explicitly includes my Soul’s creation myth, expressed both visually and poetically. And this is only the beginning…
This show — and year — will definitely be a milestone in my life and career. I hope that I’ve piqued your interest just enough and that, like me, you can’t wait to experience ‘Emergence’!
I’ll share more information over the next few months as this major project continues to unfold.
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