Denis Lavinski: The House Around the Corner, or Flashes in the Ordinary

Born in the United States, Denis Lavinski spent the majority of his life in Southern California, especially Los Angeles. He lived, studied, and worked in London while he was a student. He earned a BA in Liberal Arts with a focus on Comparative Literature, Film, and Theology from King's College London. He has worked on a variety of art projects and movie sets, including the Copperfield Gallery in London as an assistant director, the design firm yU+co (Yu and Company), and the Los Angeles studio of artist Vanessa Beecroft.

However, his family tree traces its roots back to Belarus. On his father's side, the artist's ancestors hailed from Nesvizh; his maternal grandparents resided in Zhitkovichi, a village in the Gomel region. In the mid-1990s, Denis's parents emigrated to the United States. Raised in a fusion of American culture and Soviet traditions, Denis Lavinsky longed to live in his parents' country of origin to deeply immerse himself in their culture.

In 2020, when Los Angeles was under strict lockdown and the streets were empty, the artist began his creative journey there. A meditative immersion in a state of emptiness and solitude gave rise to a spark of inspiration. Every day, long strolls through the abandoned city turned into a dependable source of inspiration. The sudden clarity of the city's visual code sparked an interest in finding beauty in commonplace and frequently overlooked objects.

The artist's initial experiments examined the ways in which urban architecture is influenced by nature. Motivated by the idea that "beauty is everywhere, you just need to be able to see it," he started documenting his surroundings and observations. Locally made Novacolor acrylic, which has a high lightfastness and a delicate texture that interacts with light, was the main material selected. The artist's canvases' vivid, dopamine colors attract attention and elicit a powerful emotional reaction like a magnet. The focus and the emotion that the viewer is willing to accept are up to them. Color creates distinct associations by serving as a conduit for the senses. Every element, whether it be a building, an interior, a wall, or a plant, is revealed separately based on its color and form. Beauty is subjective; sometimes a harmonious palette gives an object artistic value, but only a portion of it. Meaning and sensory experience are produced by the interaction of form and content, which enables the artist to convey feelings through painting. In order to create a sense of harmony and balance, he uses geometric elements in his works to bring disparate objects together into a single rhythmic composition.

His relocation to Russia in 2023 had a profound impact on his creative vocabulary. Denis had to rekindle his creative spirit, adjust to a new, frequently opposing lifestyle, form relationships with others, and converse with a new cultural code. The artist's method of meditative inquiry has changed; it now depends on social interaction rather than seclusion. Human figures are always present off-screen even though they are not depicted on the canvases. The topics frequently arise from context, such as the living rooms of friends or neighbors, the windows of other people's apartments, or leisurely walks with loved ones.

The artist himself defines his mission as introducing viewers to the diversity of cultures, countries, and cities. His goal is to seek common ground, erase boundaries, and emphasize the unity that truly matters. He strives to be a friend to the entire world, to discover beauty, and to share it.