Russian-born painter Lana Lucas will bring her modern surrealistic watercolor paintings to the InterArt Gallery from May 19-30 in an exhibition that is sure to stir deep emotions and heighten the visual senses.
“All of my surrealistic paintings tap the inner feelings deep inside of me and give them an avenue to escape,” said Lana Lucas. “It is very therapeutic for me to paint and unleash my true emotions.”
Critics say Lucas’s paintings feature rich vibrant colors contrasted with very dark subject matter that invite the viewer into a beautiful, yet strangely dangerous world. As an example, her very popular Hunt 1 and Hunt 2 pieces portray deep feelings resonating inside of Lucas at the time she painted them.
“Lana Lucas is enchanting – and even terrifying…,” said art critic Bear Miller at a 2006 Corscaden Barn exhibition. “A benign (and beautiful) storybook appearance to the work belies the dark psychological contents of these neat, glassy packages. Each painting is a very vivid, memorable, thoroughly probed, and highly finished portrait of her quirky imagination. Deceptively bourgeois in their presentation, they thinly veil the Munchian, chaotic depths of the artist. The images haunt and fascinate the viewer with the woodsy isolation of the woman who has dug deep into the underbelly of her protagonists’ unconscious. Lana Lucas has certainly nudged the artists and art lovers to take a fresh look at themselves and their potential.”
According to Lucas, she finds inspiration in subjects such as the art of Hans Bellmer, a German Surrealist artist, and a fascination with dangerous carnivorous plants.
“Just like Bellmer’s surrealistic art, if you look very closely you can see there is an additional underline meaning to all of the watercolor paintings I’ve created,” Lucas said.
Lucas was born in Russia and spent several years creating hand-painted furniture and hand welded stainless steel metal sculptures. In 2004, she made quite a stir in the art scene with her hand-painted antique Chinese armoire, entitled “Under my Skin.”
For the past ten years, she has been studying forms of art and become attached to watercolor painting. She has recently exhibited at ArtExpo New York, the historic National Arts Club New York and even at the Fine Art Magazine’s The Soul Giants 2006 End of Fall Art Showcase.
InterArt will be hosting a reception for Lana Lucas’s art on Thursday, May 21 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the gallery. The event is open to the public. Her artwork will be for available for purchase at the gallery. Entertainment will be provided by well-known violinist Michael Shulman.
For more information about Lana Lucas, her art and about the watercolor paintings she creates, please visit her website at http://www.lanalucas.com.
