Reviews

ICAC Art Critics
Marilia Elstrodt – The Critique

Magnified and distorted natural forms characterise Marilia Elstrodt’s sensational immersive paintings, challenging our sense of familiarity and perception of the world. A beautiful amalgamation of spectacular hues, blended with absolute finesse and harmony, are intrinsic to her sublime creations.

The spectator is overwhelmed by the naturalistic power that radiates from the sinuous forms and elegant lines, intertwining endlessly and captivating the viewer into a mesmeric landscape with boundless depths. Delicate brushwork and sophistication combined with a fierce exuberance of vivid colours, create a void filled with energetic and palpable dynamism. Simply gazing at these paintings, the spectator enters a world of pure chromatisms and transcendent fields of light, engulfing our mind and conquering our imagination by prompting a spiritual experience that exceeds the material boundaries of the purely aesthetic.

Elstrodt’s artworks promote an important message that every viewer can contemplate, perceive and interpret in a totally different way – significances in which our personal perceptibility opens the possibility of new horizons. Pigment is undeniably a crucial structural element in Elstrodt’s abstraction, acting as the profound essence in her deeply mysterious creations. Elstrodt’s brushwork and contour lines are masterpieces of simplicity and expressive power. Stylistically speaking, some magical surroundings remind us of Georgia O’Keeffe gems, in which the natural element often abstracted into almost signs.

Elstrodt communicates different permutations of magical ambiences and mystical memories while moving towards abstraction, until the substantial natural forms reduce into powerful symbols. Elstrodt’s conceptual paintings recall Patrick Heron’s art, a peaceful aura in which the spectator can dive into and experience the emotional impact conveyed by such evocative soft-edged shapes. As Georgia O’Keeffe once stated: “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”, Elstrodt disclosed her personal way to lead us into unknown worlds of new stimuli and subconscious emotions.

Timothy Warrington
International Confederation of Art Critics
London Art Biennale 2017