reviews
“Figures inspired by the everyday, some with biblical references, become iconic under the power of Zhenya’s brush.” Jan Baum | Director | Jan Baum Gallery
Francesco Scagliola
Journalist | Italy
“Zhenya is investigating the human being in its truest nature through paint, emphasizing rather than concealing the complexities of life. By developing a unique approach to portrait, which she refers to as psychological landscape, she is able to connect to the deepest memories of our vital essence.”
Oren Peleg
Journalist | USA
“I find that Zhenya’s art conveys the human condition in a deeply spiritual, mystical way, it is therefore so fitting to show her exhibit ‘Days of Awe’ during the High Holy Days at Hillel. Her art is a meditation on life and its profound mystery, something we can never fully understand but stand in awe of.”
Evan Henerson
Journalist | USA
Although she stands at 5-foot-10, the artist Zhenya Gershman is not imposing. Her art canvases, on the other hand, are grand, standing up to 7 feet tall, befitting their subjects: actors, musicians and celebrities who very much live up to their billing in the aptly titled new exhibition “Larger Than Life.”
Anna Dusi | Curator | Building Bridges Exchange | Bergamot Station
"Portraiture has always been an inseparable part of art history, adapting to the spirit of each different era and taking on either a commemorative or documentary role. Zhenya’s own rendering of this well-established art genre is an introspective journey into the worlds of the iconic figures immortalized in her representations. What makes these portraits unique is Gershman’s execution and technique. Her perfect, elegant lines, combined with a strong sense of chromatic virtuosity, vividly captures the fleeting expression of her subjects. Her distinguished style sets her work apart from other contemporary renditions of this genre.”
Jeff Olson | Director of Art Education | Royal Talens North America
"To describe Zhenya Gerhsman's paintings is much like describing the artist herself. Larger than life, gregarious, provoking, unreserved and unapologetic. The paintings are significantly larger than life-size, giving the viewer a level of intimacy with the subject akin to that of a lover or a forensic examination, leaving no fold in the skin or blemish undiscovered. When standing directly in front of the painting, they fill your field of vision, making the experience totally immersive. Beyond this, you also get a sense of the internal life of the subject. The surface of the painting, through Zhenya’s expressive and physical application of the paint, reveals an inner life of the material that signals the inner spirit of the individual being portrayed. Her palette is reflective of the natural environment and our experiences of seeing, but her use of color and layering of the oils, creates a more spectral vision of the figure, one that transcends our worldly experiences into a vision of what may lay beneath and beyond. Each painting reveals something about its subject, but also to the identity of the artist herself. There is a fearlessness in her approach to painting and willingness to examine the human condition directly in a way that reveals rather than masks, and enables us as the viewer to share in the boldness of her explorations."
Pinchas Giller | Chairman Jewish Studies | American Jewish University
“Zhenya Gershman’s work evokes and occupies the point at which the central paradox of existence is encompassed, namely, how does the ineffable, Divine soul, the spark of God, exist in the gross clay of the human body? How is the transcendent, ineffable Divine, encompassed in the limited, finite realm of the physical? This is the message of Gershman’s work as the muscles and sinews, the lines of age, and sweat and liquid gaze, encompass and are illuminated by the soul-wind (ruach), the shining hint of the divine soul that exists within.”