BIOGRAPHY

Tasha Rei is a contemporary artist who studies how the Old Masters created their works and seeks ways to apply this knowledge to contemporary painting. By combining historical principles with modern materials, she is developing her own painting process.

Creating each work is an exceptionally time-consuming and labor-intensive process that can take many months. Each painting begins with a meticulously prepared smooth surface and passes through numerous successive stages. The finest transparent layers are gradually applied one over another, and through their optical interaction, colour seems to emerge from within the painting itself, creating countless shades that were never directly applied to the surface. This complex layering gives her works their remarkable depth and extraordinary airiness — as if they were “painted by the wind.”

ARTIST STATEMENT

I have always been fascinated by the paintings of the Old Masters and by the incredible number of meanings that can lie hidden behind an image that appears simple at first glance. The longer you look at such a painting, the more it reveals: one story leads to another, then another, until you may find yourself contemplating the meaning of existence and the very structure of the universe.

These are the “matryoshka paintings” I want to create myself — paintings that cannot simply be seen and forgotten. I want them to continue living in the viewer’s mind long after the first encounter, revealing new meanings each time.

And perhaps the most mystical part of all is that many of my paintings first come to me in dreams. I seem to find them there, in the depths of the unconscious, bring them into reality — and through painting, return once again to the place from which they came.