EXHIBITION: Katerina Ganchak elicits emotion in “Just Feel” exhibit in Brooklyn

Artists and designers often expend a lot of energy developing a strong concept to depict through their work, but Katerina Ganchak’s work in her current solo exhibition, “Just Feel: Glass Sculptures and Paintings”, shies away from establishing a concept and focuses instead on eliciting an emotional response from the viewer. Her work intends to appeal to people with strong imagery that all human beings can intuitively relate to, and in “Just Feel”, on display at Java Studios Art Gallery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, visitors are free to have their own individualized experience.

A Ukraine native currently based in New York City, Ganchak creates acrylic paintings on canvas and blown, cast, fused, and stained glass sculptures. She maintains a studio at the artist community Java Studios, which also presented her "Beyond Boundaries" exhibit in 2013, but a great deal of her glass sculptures were fabricated at UrbanGlass.

Drawing inspiration from painters Francis Bacon and Zdzislaw Beksinski and glass sculptors William Morris and Paul Schwieder, many of her pieces depict expressive, contorted human forms, and some of her work in glass combines soft curves with sharp angles. With the exception of a bright aquamarine blue she frequently uses in her glass sculptures, her color palette is predominantly dark, but that’s not to say that only dark emotions can be conjured from her pieces. Feelings of love, loss, determination, and exasperation are stirred within me through my own individualized experience perusing her website.

“Just Feel” will be on view seven days a week through Monday, July 7th at Java Studios Art Gallery by appointment only. To schedule a viewing of this exhibit, contact the artist directly by phone at (917) 744-8669 or by email at katerinaganchak@gmail.com.

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