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| To see a world
in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. William Blake, from Auguries of Innocence Anna Efanova composes with color and texture, and brings together different types of materials so that all types of textures coexist and become inseparable. A lemon and a scrunched up paper attempt to become related under the guise of an unraveling lemon. White flowers seems to grow from a white teapot. Within the composition, foreground and background play hide and seek, imitative mimics real,all owing to a sense of play and a painter's technical skill. Nature made a simple shell or cheerful flower with beauty that makes us marvel. These paintings add the discovery that these wonders are always new when we experience them. To encounter Anna Efanova's paintings is to be challenged about your perceptions and amazed at the conclusions you reach, all the while resting your eyes on precise craftsmanship, expert use of color and a playful sense of humor. Still lifes of fruit, flowers or candies, or even a fish in a goblet(!) suggest a traditional, formal approach to painting, but a closer look reveals much more. It's a photograph, no wait, it's an oil painting. And is that a peeled lemon? No-it's a piece of paper folded up to look like a lemon peel ("Paper Lemon"). Wait, and here's another painting - "Lemon" - of an actual lemon, its peel falling away in a carefully cut spiral. The fruit sits precariously on the edge of an art table bearing the paint smudges of previous creative efforts. On top of the table is a painting, its watercolor rivulets of pale blue contrast the yellow fruit's sunny, solid presence. Or how about "Paper Apples," a 12-by-12-inch oil on canvas, whose subject matter suggests the fruit only in shape; the trio of white-and-gray "apples" are crumpled wads of paper, all light and shadow against a white foreground with a band of sky blue at the top. Viewing Efanova's paintings, you are constantly aware of assumptions being challenged and upended. What does an apple really look like? Here's a picture of a "real" lemon, and another of a "paper" lemon. But they are both two-dimensional paintings rendered in oil, so which is more "real"? And why is that fish poking out of a pricey looking silver goblet? Efanova's paintings reveal serious intentions as they betray sly humor and a willingness to play with the conventions of still-life portraiture. Her skill as a painter is equally matched by an individual style and an ability to put her unique stamp on familiar subject matter, offering a glimpse that is realistic, yet delightfully off-kilter. -Maureen Bogues |
