Embrace 1988

Curator: Today, we're looking at "Embrace," a mixed-media piece with acrylic paint from 1988, by Oleg Holosiy. Editor: Whoa. My first thought? It feels… heavy. Like looking into the depths of something unknown, you know? All this monochrome shades blending like that… What’s your impression? Curator: The artist employs an abstract expressionist style that I would say evokes a sense of tension rooted in the late Soviet period, specifically pre-Perestroika. We're seeing a world on the brink of profound shifts. Consider how identity was policed in that system, consider its effects on artists and queer people in the Soviet sphere at the time. This backdrop profoundly shaped artistic expression. Editor: Yes. And, gosh, looking closer, I see that, beneath the somber surface. This “Embrace” has all those emotions boiling in that moment…a bit scared maybe, ready for…anything, literally a life raft between those contrasts...a place in history and the possibility of liberation. Curator: Absolutely. It’s critical to understand this work is not existing in a vacuum, divorced from political reality. The roughness of the brush strokes underscores a certain raw immediacy, reflecting a cultural moment of incredible uncertainty and desire for expression stifled and only permitted by art and coded images...it has to do with power, social control, marginalization, and hidden identities. Editor: Right, and its roughness also seems really intentional. It makes you want to just touch it, even if that feeling it gives me it’s like putting a hand over something that it’s still in shock. And there’s that…faint form right in the middle of the work, looking for the future. Curator: Holosiy's choice of monochrome—the layering of light and shadow—serves, for me, a strategic purpose. These minimalist colors speaks to broader socio-political themes...like it wants to hide. But this raw intensity feels so human to me. Editor: Makes sense to me... In all that mess and those tones, in all that…the painting is like some form of acceptance, right? And still so moving… Curator: Absolutely, the "Embrace," isn't only some esthetic…It demands us to confront difficult parts of Soviet-era identity and power. Editor: And somehow finds light even there. A light of hope, right? Curator: Precisely. Editor: Yeah, wow.