Aks Misyuta

#AksMisyuta

Born in 1984, Bryansk, Russia.

Lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey.

Often depicting figures in seemingly impossible, enigmatic or invented situations, Aks Misyuta’s sculptural forms and figures which sometimes appear to be carved in solid matter are instantly recognizable. While not inspired by actual people, these figures are forms of self-portraits and capture the ambiguities of the subjects’ psychological state. Expressive, grotesque, oversized, fleshy and yet oddly vulnerable, they are adrift in gloomy environments marked by shadows and light contrasts, bridging a sense of internal turmoil and external chaos. The inflatable appearance is a way to depict our precarious nature: for the artist, “just a momentary pinprick is enough sometimes to destroy.”

Misyuta’s bronze sculptures, gestural and direct, render her pictorial elements as concrete objects. There is a physicality of feeling combined with absurdity that is comically tragic. The sculpted figures, holding a tiny monumentality, are extensions of her paintings, seemingly stepping out of the canvas and taking a three-dimensional shape.

Misyuta introduces the motif of the “timewaster” which appears throughout her work. Identifiable by the wristwatch without dial, they are engaged in languid activities, evoking a form of deliberate passivity. This mannered idleness not only provides a counterpoint to the capitalist drive for incessant productivity, but is also a claim for the right to waste your time in the face of the expectations and orders of a patriarchal culture. 

“I was raised in a culture where ‘the clock is ticking’ metaphor has always been widely used to make any woman above 18 uncomfortable, implying that all their endeavors are nothing in comparison with values of patriarchal society.” – Aks Misyuta

Selected Biography (pdf)