Nataliya Gorza (born in 1972) calls herself a painter of »psychological portraits«. Her portraits can be labelled as autobiographical works since the author paints family members, friends, and acquaintances. »I am captivated by the power of the view as a complex process happening within as well as outside,« the author says about her works. Her portraits are psychological and artistic reflexions about the sitter, it is about an intense individual reaction to another human being's heartbeat. When speaking of portraits, we also refer to paintings of naked bodies – nudes. Portraits are relatively easy to read, while paintings of naked bodies have become much more difficult to read due to social norms. Painting nudes has always been a bold act. Gorza's nudes are not ordinary studies of anatomy and movement but extremely veristic portraits. The artist conceals rather than reveals nakedness with brutal reality, and in the process completely new insights come to light. The artist was interested in the connection between the human psyche and the illustration of its physical characteristics in painting. The body of the painting has become a relief, the colour forming furrows from restless matter. The painting materials are no longer an aid, but an equal pulsing of matter, as with the French artist Jean Fautrier. Matter painting emphasizes chromaticity of matter and attributes psychological importance to it. Gorza's portraits and nudes with their style hold a special place in Slovenian painting as Nataliya comes from a completely different background and more than a decade long adaptation to the »adopted« homeland of Slovenia and education at the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and Design could not have changed the emotional charge she brought from her original homeland of Ukraine. Metka Krašovec, although her role model with her esoteric depictions of naked bodies and magical paintings – portraits, is her artistic antipode. With Gorza, what stands out is the mental automatism, the direct link between the subconscious and the creative gesture: matter is rough, the lights not glowing, but veiled or even fading, conveying other meanings.

Milena Zlatar

NATALIYA GORZA

Nataliya was born in 1972 in the Ukraine town of Chernivtsi, where she finished secondary school for fine arts, named after the poet and painter Taras Shevchenko. Life brought her to Slovenia in 2000, first to Jelenov Žleb, later to Ribnica. She continued her education at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. At the Department of Painting she was taught by Metka Krašovec, Zmago Lenardič and Sergej Kapus. She graduated in 2010. She is a member of the Ljubljana Fine Artists Society and the Union of Slovene Fine Arts Associations (ZDSLU).

She lives and works in Ribnica and Ljubljana. She teaches drawing and painting at the Ribnica Fine Arts Centre.

Photo: Nataliya Gorza: Selfportret - On Studio, 2012-13, oil on canvas, 35x55 cm