Valeriya Shebelnichenko, It's Over, Acrylic & Charcoal on Canvas, 2023

"It's over" is a painting realized by Ukrainian artist Okno in 2023. Acrylic and charcoal on canvas. Hand signed. Excellent conditions. The canvas is personally handmade and stretched by the artist. The bright pink painted figure shows only part of the body. It leaves space to imagination, while still telling a lot through the pose of the legs. Body language is the key to reading the work: It's over. There is a closure, a point, a hint of the emotionality of the character depicted. But not only. The body comes out of the canvas, passes through it, encroaching on the infinite background that surrounds it. This work is part of the series with cerulean blue backgrounds, in which the frame of the figures is the sky. Works such as this one, which have figures in bright pink as protagonists, are those in which the artist depicts herself in the dimension of dreams. It is a reign with its own meanings. The scene is suspended in time. The infinite space of the cerulean blue sky creates a feeling of peace and transports you to another dimension. For the Ukrainian artist this current research becomes necessary to be able to escape from the reality of her time, a safe and serene place in which to take refuge. Thus, these bright colours and fluffy clouds become the only necessary elements. This series investigates two phases of sleep: light sleep and deep sleep. The works with the figures in bright pink speak of the phase of light sleep, where the artist is also present as an identity. While the works with a cerulean blue background and figures painted in burnt umbre oil colour are those that inhabit the unconscious part of the artist, i.e. part of the deep phase of sleep. Valeriya Shebelnichenko, aka Okno, was born in Ukraine in 1996. Painter and performer, she currently lives and works in the city of Turin, Italy. She moved to Italy in 2004 and studied at the Art and Music High School in Forlì, obtaining her diploma in 2016. with her emotional approach to painting and performance, she manages to involve the viewers by making them part of her experiences. Okno’s works have been shown in the cities of Venice, Milan, Turin, Pisa, Rimini, Forlí, Edinburgh, she arrived as a finalist in the Arte Laguna Prize and exhibited in the spaces of the Venetian North Arsenale. Her career, albeit young, denotes various collaborations, aimed at creating an artistic dialogue that involves multiple senses.