In an era where consumerism leads individuals to an inevitable accumulation of objects, Ksenia Yarosh operates, on the contrary, following a logic of subtraction that does not align with abstraction or extreme minimalism but rather with the desire to return to an unrecognized origin, giving substance to a fading memory. Keeping in mind the various meanings of the term evocare (from Latin e- and vocare, «to call forth»), the artist depicts statues typical of classical and neoclassical art, also summoning from the otherworldly realm those spirits that embody these figures, majestic and not devoid of contradictions. 

However, Yarosh does not limit herself to a spiritual reference but concretely brings out the subjects in question from the canvas: through the removal of acrylic from its support, she evokes from the monochromatic surface gods never arbitrary, always semantically linked and representing each a fundamental part of themselves. This artistic operation falls within what we could define as evocative minimalism, where the visitor encounters a dreamlike and suggestive world, and figurative representation becomes essential: only some features of the face or body emerge from the pictorial background, suggesting the idea of a figure that never reveals itself in its complexity but still presents itself in a vague wholeness, remaining understandable in its fundamental parts, confirming in theory - the psychology of Gestalt, according to which "the whole is different from the sum of its parts". 

What remains is, therefore, a metaphorical stripping from excess, rigid, and linear figuration; a return to the pure essence of the artist's self, where the ancient merges with the contemporary, and the background becomes the protagonist, where statuary marble, cold and strict, becomes soft, and the divine element rediscovers its humanity. A suggestive blend of oppositions like that between sleep and wakefulness or the persistent dualism between rationality and creativity - enlivens an intimate yet universal field, where evoking becomes the watchword. 

Irene Fontana

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