Recurring themes of her work: climate emergency, criticism of consumerism, commercialization of women
Anastasia Samoylova is among the visual artists who have received increasing attention in recent years. Born in Russia, then moved to the US, she jumped to the honors of the art chronicle for the glib and hyper-realistic shots (FloodZone) that portray the devastating effects, in 2017, of hurricane Irma in Florida. The concern for the climate emergency together with the criticism of consumerism, the commercialization of femininity, the contradictions inherent in the American dream are some of the themes on which the photographer develops an active gaze: categories considered urgent today and therefore ubiquitous and inflated in cultural events that wish to participate in the contemporary debate.
So, how to succeed in having a voice in the chorus where everyone is in the highest moral battle and, at the same time, win the best wall in the most profiling exhibition? Samoylova’s strong background—studies in environmental design and architecture in Moscow followed by a master’s degree at the Russian State University for the Humanities and an interdisciplinary art scholarship at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois—will be the basis to not give in the didascalic and to create an imaginary suspended between participatory reality and cynical vision, between glamour and popular, between instagramable and exclusive.
Studies in environmental design and architecture in Moscow first, then the master's degree at the Russian State University for the Humanities, so the landing in the USA at Bradley University
With the right distance, in fact, she picks up dissonances, paradoxes, dramatic details and places them in an aesthetically pleasing narrative, characterized by pastel palettes, typical of tropical atmospheres, seasoned with irony and provocation. “Adaptation”, organized by the Saatchi Gallery and curated by Taous R. Dahmani, presents, until January 20th, 2025, observation photography alternating with studio practice through, in addition to the already mentioned, the series Landscape Sublime, where images taken from the web are reassembled in a collage; Image Cities, focused on the visual saturation of metropolis such as New York, Paris, Tokyo, Floridas, where the suggestions of the state kissed by the sun and infested by alligators are elevated to an American microcosm; Breakfasts, which mixes in the daily intimacy food and catalogs.
The invitation is to focus on the relationship between man and nature and to take time to investigate the grotesque feeling that a false fairy tale hides in the folds of its nefarious. The desired effect on consciences is not guaranteed by overexposure in society, which has become anesthetized by these continuous ethical readings of society itself, but, on the whole, the precious taste, of class, cool and sarcastic vein in Samoylova’s artworks allow her to fly high above the roofs of mediocrity.
