Vlasta Smola

Her birds are messengers of humanity. In this series, she paints birds and women side by side in an anamorphic dance, mirroring one another in a dreamy, illuminated, liquid atmosphere. Smola's paintings bear literary names drawing from mythological and spiritual traditions, expanding her narrative context.

Smola's paintings of these birds become symbolic mirrors reflecting the women's inner essence, a metamorphosis that echoes surrealism's fascination with distorted perspectives and the fluid boundaries between conscious forms and unconscious desires, much like Kafka's "Metamorphosis," where the protagonist's awakening as an insect becomes a visceral metaphor for social alienation. Smola's paintings speak the surrealist language to today's viewers, reflecting our human yearnings.

Smola is a Ukrainian artist living in the US.