Xenia Gray
Mixed-media artist based in the United States
ABOUT
Xenia Gray is a contemporary figurative artist who primarily works in mixed media, including oil, acrylic, and charcoal. Fascinated by unexpressed feelings and things left unsaid, Xenia explores emotions through paintings of the human body. Xenia grew up in Siberia in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, and her sense of color and aesthetics is heavily influenced by the industrial environment of her hometown. Xenia enrolled in a local art school at nine and continued her art education in Saint Petersburg, where she achieved an MA in advertisement design from Saint Petersburg State University of Technology and Design. She moved to the United States in 2010. "Art is a channel for me, through which I can express my emotions, be seen and understood by an observer."
ARTIST STATEMENT
Are we alone in the universe? Where is everybody? As humans look to the stars for answers and enlightenment, we find ourselves surrounded by eerie silence. This “Great Silence” series of artworks - the dichotomy between the idea that here must be someone, something out there and the fact that we haven’t found real evidence of extraterrestrial life – is known as the Fermi Paradox. Fueled by my unrelenting search for connection — with other human beings, a higher power, the forces that govern the universe —my art embodies the Great Silence of our inner worlds. The yearning for answers and for a connection with something greater. Each stroke of acrylic, charcoal and graphite is an attempt to bridge the gap between the tangible and the unseen. In the interplay of light and shadow, in the contours of the human form, I find the whispers of the cosmos, the echoes of our existence.
Instagram: @xenia.gray