Out of TownerKatya Grokhovsky :
Bodies as a Political Form by Leah Sandler
Utopia 16000 , installation , photo by Natasha Frisch
Katya Grokhovsky is an artist , curator , and educator , born in the Ukraine , raised in Australia , and currently practicing in New York . Her interdisciplinary practice spans many mediums , combining painting , drawing , performance , collage , installation , text , and video in an exploration of the body in personal and political realms .
Grokhovsky ’ s fi rst Bachelor ’ s degree was in fashion design ( she later earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago ) and her knowledge of fabric and textiles has informed some of her practice ’ s material and conceptual choices . Her installations often contain soft , textural , sewn , stuffed , tufted , and structural elements with biomorphic forms , while her
43 performances and videos frequently make use of absurd costumes , wigs , and props in a theatrical invocation of the artist ’ s own physical presence and the performance of gender identity in gestures and actions . The
Touch it , interactive performance , photo by Debbie Rasiel
artist ’ s works on paper and paintings contain formally similar references to the body , with several of her digital prints stepping further into abstracted fi guration and use of photographic and collaged elements .
As a woman and an immigrant , Grokhovsky is concerned with the intersections of identity and politics , and her artistic practice as well as her curatorial practice are sensitive to this concern . Grokhovsky has stated that she is fascinated by how bodies are “ perceived , examined , policed , colonized , politicized , and fetishized ,” and creates work with the intention of subverting objectifi cation of her female body , with an interest in the “ conditioning of feminine and masculine and where they cross
www . ARTBORNEMAGAZINE . com