On April 24, the first exhibition of the Odessa artist Irina Ozarinskaya opens in Venice. The Vizione Altre Gallery is located right in the Venetian Ghetto at Campo del Ghetto Novo 2918 – 30121 Venice

“We conceived this exhibition a year ago, long before the war. And we believe that showing Ukrainian art is now more important than ever. Moreover, this year's biennale will focus on the work of women artists, and even the name is borrowed from the title of the book by the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington "The Milk of Dreams". And Sonia Delaunay, who was born in Odessa, until the last days of her life remembered the bright colors of Ukraine, were in the absolute trend,” emphasizes the project curator, Odessa collector, researcher of Sonia Delaunay and writer Eugene Demenok.

Irina "OZI" Ozarinskaya (Odessa-Venice)

The search for her own self brought Irina Ozarinskaya to experiments with transforming human bodies, whose lives are constantly reinterpreted through the prism of imagination, while the metamorphoses of bodies make us wonder if a man is a patchwork quilt made of myths, fantasies, beliefs and those things perceived as reality.

The past is woven from the future, and it is us who, using the power of our imagination, can change them in the same way we can change the present with our actions. The heritage, just as inheritance, is able to enrich. Especially if this inheritance, this legacy is related to your roots.

The transformation of Sonia Delaunay’s legacy is not a coincidence for OZI. Both artists are from Odessa. Ira was born nine months before Sonia left this world. Similar to Sonia, Irina is acutely sensitive to colour, to be more precise, colours – clear and bright colours of Ukraine’s south. However, contrary to Delaunay’s abstractions, she vests them with shape. The personal history of Irina who moved from her native Odessa to Venice resembles the personal story of Sonia who moved to Paris when she was twenty two – as it turned out, forever. The background for works by both artists is experimenting. Moreover, the destinies of both artists are charred by war. The current Russian aggression against Ukraine made Irina reconsider Sonia’s biography, who, being a Jew, had to seek safety in the south of France during the Second World War, fearing both for her life and for the destiny of the works by Robert Delaunay, her husband.
History repeating – and history changing. Is it possible to say that we live in the era of transformations? Absolutely. However, it happened before. Nothing remains the same. But creative reinterpretation of history and legacy in each specific soul is priceless and imperishable.

Irina Ozarinskaya was born in Odessa in 1979 and moved to Venice in 2013. She took part in exhibitions and international projects in museums and galleries in Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, Italy, Great Britain and Montenegro.