“I love painting.”

We visited one of the rising stars on the global art scene, British painter Flora Yukhnovich, who recently moved her studio from London to New York.

“Nature is a really important part of my work, and I think of nature as something that's self–propagating, something that's organic, and that is about the accidents that happen in paint. My way of painting relies a lot on that sort of accidental nature and the idea that the painting grows itself. I’m sort of responding to things that are out of my control and happening on the canvas.”

Yukhnovich has been hailed as one of the great new masters of painting, destined to occupy a central place in art history. Using a sensuous visual language that lies between figuration and abstraction, Yukhnovich incorporates historical styles into her work – particularly Rococo. At the same time, she transcends conventional genre boundaries by traversing high culture and popular culture.

“When I started painting, I was afraid of color. I felt like it was quite unserious, and my paintings were very brown. I sort of lent into color at one point, and for me, there's something freeing, a bit tacky, about colorful paintings that I really enjoy. I think colour has the potential for creating associations more than anything else in painting. I think it's the strongest tool for making those connections.”

“I don't know that I agree that something can be decoration. I think most of it is dependent on how you, as the viewer, turn up to something and how committed you are to finding meaning in things. I think the idea that something is decorative and dismissed for that is a gendered idea. There's something interesting about how suspicious or fearful we might be of beautiful or decorative things. I think there's something very puritanical about that.”

Flora Yukhnovich is an acclaimed painter known for adopting the language of Rococo, reimagining the dynamism of works by eighteenth-century artists such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, François Boucher, Nicolas Lancret, and Jean-Antoine Watteau through a filter of contemporary cultural references including film, food, and consumerism.

Variation is a driving force in Yukhnovich’s work with her mark-making ranging from delicate flourishes to dramatic and gestural brushstrokes, heightening the rhythmic sensuality throughout her ambitious compositions. Existing in a constantly fluctuating state between abstraction and figuration, Yukhnovich’s paintings explore ideas surrounding dualities and multiplicities, transcending painterly traditions while fusing high art with popular culture and intellect with intuition.

Flora Yukhnovich (b. 1990) completed her MA at the City & Guilds of London Art School in 2017. Her work is included in international museum collections, including the Government Art Collection, London, UK; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, USA; The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada; and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

Flora Yukhnovich was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in London in August 2024.

Camera: Phillip Jørgensen
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024

Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.

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