MAY DAY: Marina Tsesarskaya & the Sacred Marriage

"Ceremony #2" C-Print by Marina Tsesarskaya; archival digital print, 22 x 30, 2009

April 29, 2010.  A long anticipated visit to Marina Tsesarskays’s studio at Chashama in Harlem resulted in a revelation summed up by her follow-up e-mail: “All my work is about the sacred marriage.”

A crucial sign that the awareness of this Icon has arrived in the art world…just in time for…

…MAY DAY!

“Almost close to heaven #1″ by Marina Tsesarskaya; 4 color serigraph on Canson paper (edition of 23), # 1 23”x32“, 2002

Marina is a Urkraine born artist transplanted to New York City.  Ukraine was a center of icon making, located at the crossroads

from Marina Tsearskaya's "Nine Days of Changes" silkscreen printed on BFK paper

between East and West.  it is no wonder that Marina, who was rigorously trained under the Soviet system, would so successfully integrate European imagery with Asian iconography.  Yet, the breakthrough of her work is the genius with which she fuses tradition with innovation.   She digs through human emotion to achieve a balance of Eros and Thanos from which she extracts the universal geometries and rhythms linking humanity with the cosmos.  Such absolute pleasure is the experience of participating in her art!

“My work is all about changes”

“My work involves the connection between body, spirit and emotions”

“My work is the connection between reality & dream, present & memory.”

“It is within the body that we experience pleasure & pain, transcendence & immanence.”

“The body is a site of struggle between life & death, complex & intense emotions both joyful & troubling.”

“With my work I seek to invoke in the viewer a sense of awe for our existence.”

– Marina Tsesarskaya

"Ceremony #7" by Marina Tsesarskaya; archival digital print, 22 x 30, 2009