Flora Yukhnovich is acclaimed for paintings that, fluctuating between abstraction and figuration, transcend painterly traditions to fuse high art with popular culture, and intellect with intuition. While in the past she has adopted the language of Rococo, dynamically reimagining aspects of works by eighteenth-century artists such as Tiepolo, Boucher, Lancret and Watteau through a filter of contemporary cultural references, new paintings and works on paper draw on various depictions of the Roman goddess Venus in mythology, art history and contemporary culture. Rather than focus on individual points of reference, each work synthesises a multitude of influences that convey the shifting representations and significations of Venus herself. Here, the Venus that embodies idealised female form, is goddess of love, maternal care, sexual reproduction and erotic desire, meets the Venus of violent origin and hybrid gender – promiscuous and vengeful.

Variation is a driving force in Yukhnovich’s art, her mark making ranging from delicate flourishes to dramatic and muscular brushstrokes, heightening a sense of rhythmic sensuality. Paint, in her hands, becomes the perfect vehicle to conjure the multiplicity of a subject that, characterised by flux and transformation, is as elusive as it is seductive.

About the artist

Born in 1990, Flora Yukhnovich completed her MA at the City & Guilds of London Art School in 2017. She had her first solo exhibition at Brocket, London, in December 2017 and has recently exhibited at Parafin, London, GASK, the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republic, Hastings Contemporary and at Blenheim Walk Gallery, Leeds Arts University, UK.

Previous solo exhibitions with Victoria Miro include The Venice Paintings and Barcarole, both held in 2020. Collections include Government Art Collection and David Roberts Art Collection. In 2018 she completed The Great Women Artists Residency at Palazzo Monti, Brescia.

During the first half of 2022, Flora Yukhnovich will have a solo exhibition at Victoria Miro in London. During the second half of the year, she will have an exhibition of works responding to the collection at The Ashmolean, Oxford.