Andrea Kostyal Artist Statement 2021
My dreamlike paintings are inspired by urban landscape and nature that reflect experiences from my childhood and young adulthood. I grew up in a small town in Europe where playing outdoors and gardening was commonplace. Later, I studied art and textiles in an artistically and culturally rich city in Hungary filled with beautiful historic buildings and architectural masterpieces. My craving and memories of dynamic city life, the sense of the streets’ atmosphere suggests that my paintings investigate the natural environment and their connections with man-made structures in harmony.
I enjoy careful planning of my detailed collaged and transferred photographs of street views as viewpoints in my paintings. They contain constructed forms between grids. These grids simultaneously connect shapes and forms along horizontal and vertical lines, like woven tapestry, creating rhythms, a sense of depth and visual spacing between detailed or compendious forms. Playful bubbles permeate the whole painting in poetic movement on the canvas, reflecting my feelings and moods.
In my most recent New Normal series that I have created during the COVID-19 pandemic figures wearing masks appear in my cityscapes as it became a new norm in our everyday lives. My goal through my art is to encourage viewers to stay positive and most importantly united. My primary concerns are to find peace in our emotional struggles and in our adaptation to new challenges that we may have never experienced before.
My dreamlike paintings are inspired by urban landscape and nature that reflect experiences from my childhood and young adulthood. I grew up in a small town in Europe where playing outdoors and gardening was commonplace. Later, I studied art and textiles in an artistically and culturally rich city in Hungary filled with beautiful historic buildings and architectural masterpieces. My craving and memories of dynamic city life, the sense of the streets’ atmosphere suggests that my paintings investigate the natural environment and their connections with man-made structures in harmony.
I enjoy careful planning of my detailed collaged and transferred photographs of street views as viewpoints in my paintings. They contain constructed forms between grids. These grids simultaneously connect shapes and forms along horizontal and vertical lines, like woven tapestry, creating rhythms, a sense of depth and visual spacing between detailed or compendious forms. Playful bubbles permeate the whole painting in poetic movement on the canvas, reflecting my feelings and moods.
In my most recent New Normal series that I have created during the COVID-19 pandemic figures wearing masks appear in my cityscapes as it became a new norm in our everyday lives. My goal through my art is to encourage viewers to stay positive and most importantly united. My primary concerns are to find peace in our emotional struggles and in our adaptation to new challenges that we may have never experienced before.
