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1/11/2011

Oleg Tistol

Salon Vert, London

Salon Vert is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Ukrainian conceptual artist Oleg Tistol. Tistol's art is a perfect illustration of his position as an artist, as well as a citizen, in a situation of radical political and social transformations after Ukraine gained independence in 1991. His practice is a captivating combination of post-Soviet artistic traditions with a fresh infusion of spirit of liberation and self-containment. For Tistol, his art is a way to fulfill his personal desire—which echoes his country's ambition—to obtain a new visual identity in the changing conditions of political and social reality.

For his first solo show in the UK, Tistol presents a large body of works spanning the last decade of his career. The Mythology of Happiness includes three major ongoing series of paintings—'Mountains', 'Palm Trees' and 'Food'—which reveal the artist's interpretation of the political as a highly personalized phenomenon and the inevitability of interdependence, confluence of national and personal dimensions of identity.

This complex field of enquiry led the artist back to the attempts of creating an everyday 'heaven' on a personal level amid the highly problematic social and political context in the newly created state formation. As a result, Tistol's artworks become deeply personal, almost private, representing memories and symbols as well as real life documentation, such as in his Tax and Notary paintings. Tistol aspires to build his 'heaven' upon pre-given historical and cultural traditions, ignoring the endeavors to reject them as 'not fitting' the demands of an image of a newly formed individual or state.

Tistol's art might be considered as a manifesto encouraging the viewer to create their own heaven here and now, to have courage to adjust the very notion of 'heaven' to their personal perception of it. In this undertaking, Tistol's art is optimistic and constructive, which is most evident in his 'Food' series, where the artist transforms everyday meals into an aestheticized festivity of color and texture. Visualization of personal 'heaven' takes diverse stylistic forms—from fauvist Palm trees to semi-abstract Mountains with an illusion of three-dimensionality emphasizing their physicality. The Mythology of Happiness stands for Tistol's realization of his artistic manifesto, which is simultaneously personal and in the end political.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, featuring an essay by writer Paul Carey-Kent, and limited editions of Tistol's latest photographic series 'Cleaning', demonstrating the artist's postmodernist approach of painting directly into his photographs.

Oleg Tistol was born in Vradiivka, Ukraine, in 1960. He graduated from Kiev Republican Art School, the Department of Painting, and Lviv State Institute of Decorative and Applied Arts. Tistol participated in 49th Venice Biennale and 22nd Sao Paulo Biennale. His works are part of collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Cristoph Merian Stiftung, Basel, Museum of History of Moscow, Russia, PinchukArtCenter, Kiev, Ministry of Culture of Turkey, Ankara, and numerous international private collections. He lives and works in Kiev, Ukraine.

Press and Exhibition Enquiries: info@salon-vert.com, +44(0)20 7486 1760

Artist Talk: Tue 8 Nov | 6:30–7:30PM

Image: Oleg Tistol, Kazbek, 2011, oil on canvas and acrylic on canvas, 160 x 190 cm

Opening: wed, 2 Nov | 6–9PM

Salon Vert
21 Park Square East (Regent's Park) London
Hours: tue-sat 10am-6pm, or by appointment
Admission free

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