Artist Interview with Rebecca Shkeyrov:
Painting the Narratives of Imagination
By Isabella Chalfant
Everyone sees the world in different ways; sometimes it’s a difference in the way colors
interact, or perhaps how one sees the planes of someone's face. The way artist Rebecca
Shkeyrov sees the world is put to canvas as she paints figures and structures in vivid color and
prismatic geometry. Shkeyrov builds compositions of symbolism and dapples reality with a hint
of surrealism. She questions the very essence of observation and the nature of the world’s
identity. Rebecca is a new artist with the gallery, her skill and artistic vision shines through her
every brushstroke and her artwork has been showcased in the Matney Gallery’s recent “A
Glimpse Into The Future'' Exhibition. The artist received her BA in Studio Art and Art history
from William & Mary in 2020 and has exhibited her paintings in New York, Virginia, Ohio, and
Maryland. In this interview, Rebecca’s artistic vision, inspiration, and how her imagination affects
not only her work but the way she sees the world will be revealed.
The Matney Gallery asked the young artist about her artistic vision and she responded, “I
want to merge the joy and beauty of the observed world with that of my imagined universe. I
have been slowly worldbuilding with my art, creating a visual lexicon of colors, symbols, and
figures that tell intimate stories through the poetry of color and structure. These stories revolve
around exploring my identity through close observation.” Shkeyrov allows her viewer a glimpse
into her own mind as she paints a mindscape unlike any other. With every layer of paint, a new
world comes to life on her canvas.
We wanted to be able to understand her inspiration and how she came to find her artistic
calling. When asked to elaborate on the matter she replied, “I would say it’s just in my genes;
my father is a talented artist. Unfortunately, he could not realize his dream to pursue art as a
career because, as a Jew living in the Soviet Union, he was barred from entry into art school.
He had a brief stint as a commercial artist in the States before going to law school and settling
on a career as a Russian-English Interpreter.” She conveyed to us her family's story as well as
what a privilege it is to her to be able to create art by stating, “I create art because I have both
the innate drive and the privilege to be able to do so. I am blessed that in my case, making art is
what makes my immigrant parents happy and proud of me.” She is able to realize her dreams
as an artist and her family is able to watch her artistic journey as she sets the art world ablaze
with her vibrant fractals of color.
Rebecca Shkeyrov, Like an Ocean in a Bathtub, 2021, Oil on canvas,
20 × 16 in | 50.8 × 40.6 cm
The minute detail and vivacious use of color takes an extreme amount of effort and the
gallery wanted to know about Rebecca’s process. When we asked her what this process looks
like, she told us, “I usually start with a brief compositional or figurative idea and create the
painting from there. Throughout the process, the composition will shift and settle until it feels just
right, adapting new elements that spring up during the process of painting. I try to keep the
painting loose and open until the composition is solidified and then I become more involved in
finding specific colors and forms until the painting comes to a natural stopping point.” Shkeyrov
has developed a process that allows the painting to naturally come to fruition, enabling different
pieces of the composition to appear without forceful execution.
Given this particular painting technique, we also questioned the artist about how long it
took for her to develop her style of painting. She responded by stating, “I think it is still very
much developing. But it began in my first year at William and Mary studying under John Lee.
What does remain constant throughout my life as a painter is my interest in figures, composition,
and color. After enough unconscious placement, I have also noticed that I have several
recurring images in my paintings, namely houses, suns, and angels.” These recurring images
caught the attention of the gallery as well, so we later asked Rebecca about whether or not she had any particular symbolism in her artwork. She replied, “Yes, these elements are intuitively placed and are a response to emotions and narratives felt throughout the process. I think I am so deep in the painting that I often don’t realize or interpret the actual meaning of these elements until the painting is complete. Like I said, it’s intuitive, I am not concept-forward. For me, most of the concept or ideology behind my work is formed during the creation, although of course there is some forethought and afterthought as well.“
Rebecca Shkeyrov, Call Her Green, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 30 × 36 in | 76.2 × 91.4 cm
We concluded the interview by asking Shkeyrov about what she wants to convey with her paintings and what she hopes the viewer will interpret from her art. She finished the interview with, “I want it to inspire people to look more closely, to slow down, to love those around them. I hope the viewer will find their own meaning, psychoanalyzing the subject and taking their own interpretations of the surrounding environment and whatever symbols in the painting to form their own unique narrative of what they are looking at. We can all recognize a figure in a room. I hope this universality can spark something in the viewer.” The artist expresses that every viewer will take away something different from her work. This creates a new interpretation of her work every time a pair of eyes falls on the paintings. Her intention allows the viewer to create their own narrative from within themselves with her painting as a sort of visual aid in the endeavor.
This interview gave the Matney Gallery new insight into the work that artist Rebecca Shkeyrov exhibits within the space. The young artist creates paintings that are not only intricate, but she allows her work to naturally develop throughout the process. This brings the paintings to life with unique narratives crafted from Rebecca’s own imagination, allowing the audience a peek into how she sees the world. The viewer is then free to interpret the paintings however they please as Shkeyrov hopes that her work will set something within their imagination alight.
MORE ABOUT REBECCA SHKEYROV
엄마 (Mom), ㅁ(M), and 엄마의엄마 (Mom's Mom)
The three pieces ㅁ(M), 엄마 (Mom), and 엄마의엄마 (Mom's Mom) came about in what I could call a symbolic chain of events. It started with two large, blue, cotton cyanotype sheets that were donated to me which I decided to cut into squares and turn into a patchwork fabric. This patchwork can be seen in the background of ㅁ (M). Sewing these together made me think about my grandmother, who earned the pennies that would keep her family alive by sewing traditional Korean dresses called "hanbok", which is what she is wearing in the sculpture. She died when my mother was twenty years old, so I never got to meet her. Using my mom as an intermediary between myself and my grandmother, I created her bust featuring a dress made up of blue squares and a necklace of gold.
All these squares are connected to the Korean letter M which is in the shape of a square (ㅁ). The word for Mom in Korean has two M's, just like the English word. In my painting, you will find many squares (including the canvas itself). I am constantly searching for different types of squares and geometric shapes in my work. The repetition of the square, this M, the ㅁ (which also means "mouth" in Hanja), acts as a visual chant which unifies three generations of women, each generation more prosperous than the last.
The gold angel I am holding in my painting simultaneously symbolizes a potential fourth generation while also calling to mind my deceased grandmother. Therefore, this figure brings the generations back around full circle, like an ever-reverberating echo.
In Two Mothers, I wanted to create a still life to reunite my mother and her mother in one space for the first time in 40 years. For the setup, I included the new sculpture of my grandmother, a 2020 painting of my mother, cheekily titled Modiglimommy, and several Korean vases. The tallest vase is the closest thing we have to a family heirloom -- between my grandfather tossing all of my grandmother's belongings from fear of her ghost to my mother immigrating across an entire ocean, it is the only artefact I have come into contact from my mother's childhood apart from photographs.
Placing my own work within itself allows me to explore the surreality between real life and painting and to create infinite mirrors reflecting my paintings back onto the viewer. For example, the bouquet of sunflowers in Two Mothers are observed from a previous painting in which the sunflowers sprung from my imagination, and the sunflower on the table in Two Mothers is "real", and observed directly from life. However, ultimately, they are both reduced to flat shapes of mud and elevated to jewels of color. The line between imagined and observed becomes tenuous and subjective.
