"Dmytrenko's creative practice is akin to meditation; keeping her mind entirely blank, she allows unconscious imagery to surface. The creatures come unbidden, warped by the Slavic mythology that pervaded her childhood fears. While these beings have always haunted Dmytrenko's practice, in earlier works they were far more abstract. Now they arrive with flesh, muscle, wrinkles-even teeth. They grow increasingly specific, as if sharpening in resolution."
"Dmytrenko's aim is not to distort, but to reveal-not to escape reality, but to explore its foundations. The works speak to a collective unconscious, carried by the same mythic current that connects Grendel's mother with Plato's fractured creatures; beings with a forgotten majesty, both foreign and familiar. Although her creations evoke Bosch's hellscapes, their visceral rendering is different in design. Where Bosch revels in all that is crude and sordid, Dmytrenko wields anatomy to exalt, rather than to debase."
Daria Dmytrenko creates works that manifest creatures situated between nightmare and self-portrait. The figures are simultaneously amorphous and anatomical, grotesque and majestic, emerging from a prehistoric, subconscious psyche. A meditative creative method—clearing conscious thought—allows unconscious imagery, often warped by Slavic mythology, to surface. Earlier abstractions have become more specific, with flesh, muscle, wrinkles, and teeth. The works aim to reveal foundational reality and tap a collective unconscious that links mythic beings across cultures. The imagery evokes Bosch-like hellscapes but privileges anatomical exaltation over debasement. Sculptural extensions expand a mythology rooted in caves, forests, secrecy, and feminine interiority.
#subconscious-imagery #slavic-mythology #grotesque-anatomy #feminine-self-portrait #painting--sculpture
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