About
Tatiana Flis is fascinated by the almost imperceptible stillness before, during, and after the moment of discovery; still, frozen moments which slip away as soon as our analytical minds take control. Flis’ artwork aims to capture these moments, through layering, distortion, and concealment.
Flis’ most recent body of work is designed to draw the viewer into other dimensions, creating connections across boundaries of time and space. In using monoprinting methods, Flis layers print upon print in an overlapping sequence. As the composition is built, the layers push and pull the perspective of the abstracted imagery, creating a collaged appearance. Cloud-like imagery is a constant in Flis’ explorations. She continues to use this imagery in an atmospheric rendering, allowing the viewer to turn to the sky and clouds as a place to breathe within the chaos.
The work is a reaction to the environment. Isolation urged her to look closely at what is being overlooked in our everyday. Her aim is to organize these half-remembered moments, and to make sense of the complexity of the human psyche in times of chaos, solitude, tension, and excess.
Flis earned an MFA in Sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art, MI, and her BFA in Sculpture and Printmaking from Ringling College of Art and Design, FL. She has been featured in Artscope Magazine, Art New England, Juniper Rag, and reviewed in The Boston Globe. Flis has participated in multiple art fairs in Boston and Chicago and was awarded a creative residencies at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT and Drop, Forge & Tool in Hudson, NY. Her work has been shown extensively throughout the United States and is collected internationally. She works from her studio in Millbury, MA.
Artist Statement
“All that can be seen at this moment are…shadowy shapes.”
As the world trends towards practicality, I am instead fascinated by the almost imperceptible stillness before, during and after the moment of discovery; still, frozen moments which slip away as soon as our analytical minds take control. My artwork aims to capture these moments, employing surrealist language in a dynamic approach. The experience is an intriguing game between real and illusory, questioning our social constructs. The imagery becomes the impossible; an illusion of imitation, which always arrives at its own peculiar destination.
I create subtle forms and drawings which combine aspects of the natural landscape with human elements. These pieces are designed to draw the viewer into other dimensions, exploring relationships between the human psyche and moments of chaos, solitude, tension, excess and absence. These emotions are woven within these fantastical landscapes, while leaving the physical state of the viewer undisturbed. The landscapes allow access into private worlds not unlike our own, creating connections across boundaries of time and space.