ART
Liza Ostanina is Back with “MANY REDS” Solo Exhibition
The secrets behind Ostanina’s multidisciplinary career and insight into her artistic practice
BY VANESA KRIZONYTE
The colour red seems like any other colour until you discover Liza Ostanina. For Liza Ostanina, red is a colour that evokes heat, activity, passion, sexuality, anger, love, and joy. “Red really made me feel like myself again and was very empowering”. The combination of red’s influence on her character and multidisciplinary creative work landed her role as fashion editor at Vogue at the age of 19. And shoot productions for notable fashion brands such as Ugg and Off-White. Recently, Ostanina has experimented with oil paints to express the connection between the digital and physical world, sexual desires, manic episodes, and social media popularity by using the signature red colour throughout the collections. Every gesture performed by Ostanina is filled with meaning and intention, so we hope our insight into her work can inspire our viewers in career progressions and general life as an artist.
Tell us about yourself
I was creative for as long as I can remember and I always loved fashion. By the age of 19 I got a digital editor position in Vogue Russia and this is how my creative journey started. I was working as a writer, stylist, photographer, filmmaker and recently painter. I think that any creative has many skills in them to explore and it’s always cool to try yourself in different mediums.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
I don’t put people as inspiration – it’s always objects, life events or might be some piece of art itself. There are some people whose courage and artistry I admire but this is it – Kanye will always be one of them, as well as Sofia Coppola, Basquiat+Warhol duo and Julia Fox. I love when people don’t put labels on themselves and just create.
What draws you to film production?
I started making videos really early and tried to document my life through my own lens. Later I decided that this could be a way to tell stories and create something new.
What is your favourite camera setting and motion?
If I shoot myself I like using old digital or vhs camera for the vintage look, but working with directors of photography I leave it to them completely.
Favourite memory of the Off-White SS20 fashion show? Was it different from other film projects?
It was a fun moment to work on, I had a great team and met a lot of friends backstage and after the show. The important part about Off White shows is that it always feels like a big family reunion – I worked on the one of 2017 and it was also the same way, very familiar and warm.
Who is your favourite artist?
George Condo, Nam Jun Paik, Tracey Emin, Arthur Jafa, Cy Twombly
What is the purpose of your artwork? What draws you to oil paint?
In my art, I am exploring the connection between digital and physical world, sexual desires, manic episodes, social media popularity and beauty using signature red colour throughout art pieces. Oil painting gives me freedom of expression and unlimited imagination.
What was the goal of your “Many Reds” exhibition? Is there anything you would change?
I want to share the familiar in a new way – how we are currently depending on the screens and have our life go through it, but also all the feelings it might bring together. The whole experience is based on self-praising, but also self-destruction, obsessions and life through digital and the way that I connect with people much more through screens rather than those physical forms of human beings around me.
What completes an artwork/ film shoot for you?
The feeling of completion and the wish to create something new because the process never ends.
Follow Liza Ostanina’s Instagram to see her new exhibition coming up in Paris during fashion week 26 – 29th February 2024.
Gratitude to Liza Ostanina for this interview. Conducted on 28, November 2023.
