After working on celebrated commissions for everyone from Louis Vuitton to Starbucks, Ola Volo is back to making work for exhibition—and she is debuting it at home in Vancouver.
Though the young painter and muralist has recently relocated to Montreal, Vancouver will always have her heart (“I’m attached to the hip to Vancouver,” she jokes over coffee at Matchstick), and it is where she has chosen to exhibit a whole new collection of large canvas works, marking her first solo show in more than four years.
Produced by Art Rapture, “King. Queen. Lovers. Fool.” runs Oct. 5 and 6, 2018 at the Settlement Building in Railtown. Featuring 12 original canvas paintings, four limited-edition silkscreen pieces on paper, two open-edition digital paper prints, and one mural-sized work on wood, the exhibition takes viewers on a whimsical, engaging adventure inspired by folklore and tarot. “I kept getting these readings—I was really surprised by how accurate they were,” Volo says of getting her tarot cards read. “I take it with a grain of salt. It’s almost like a point of reflection. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but there’s something that happens with these characters reappearing, and nothing is ever set in stone; there’s always a solution that’s presented in every card.” Combining symbols and characters from tarot with her styled universe of Russian folk tales, Volo’s striking pieces are at once foreign and familiar.
Incorporating golds, reds, and deep oranges, these new works represent a maturation of the Kazakhstan-born, Canada-raised artist; inviting onlookers into her mind, Volo impresses upon each guest a sense of playful expansion and rich dynamism. Even if it’s only for a short while, Vancouver is lucky to have her back.
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