Syntax Gallery is pleased to announce new exhibition by Olya Kroytor. The exhibition will take place in the NK Gallery in Antwerp (Pourbusstraat 19).

Olya Kroytor - The Extraordinary Act
I
Contemporary art operates within a logic of expansion, displacement, openness, and constant crossbreeding, celebrating hybrid forms and systems. Moving through time and space, the artist creates a proliferation of personal, fragmented narratives that overlay and disrupt linear progressions, conventions, and consensus. From this eclectic and even chaotic “art world” emerged the Russian artist Olya Kroytor. She is considered one of the most remarkable young artists to have emerged from the Moscow scene in the past decade.
She works across various mediums, including painting, collage, installation, sculpture, and performance. She is particularly renowned for her performative pieces, which earned her the Kandinsky Prize in Moscow in 2015 in the category "Young Artist: Project of the Year." Her performances are typically long-duration and predominantly explore themes of endurance, symbolizing social and philosophical concepts.
Her paintings, which blend collages with invented images, are characterized by structures reminiscent of early 20th-century Russian constructivist art. They oscillate between urban scenes and visions of space filled with references to American comics. While her highly conceptual work could be described as "Constructive Pop," there is much more to it. Her art transcends simple categorization, offering a rich tapestry of visual and thematic elements that invite deeper exploration and interpretation.
II
The art of Olya Kroytor is an intelligent hybridization of appropriated and invented elements, which she rearranges on the pictorial surface or within spatial constructions. Her paintings and collages are characterized by a clear structure that incorporates images from American comics, while her sculptures often include letters and words. At first glance, her paintings, which depict modernistic and science fiction architecture, convey a sense of beauty, balanced reminiscence, or a utopian vision. The scenery in these paintings is often set in a "no man's land," if not in outer space. The forms resemble habitations or vessels filled with images of figures. However, there is always a tension within these works, a contradiction that reveals a possible secondary meaning.
The "word sculptures" evoke a similar sensation. Their solid structure frames a cacophony of words and sounds, creating a soundscape where one might catch an ephemeral yet meaningful word or phrase. These scenes induce a sense of unease. In her more recent installation works, such as "My Grandmother is
Fine," there is a latent feeling of mystery, even horror, that permeates the common space. Playing with contradictions, newspaper articles seem to grow like mold out of the beautiful wallpaper, presenting troubling news.
A few years ago, the artist created beautiful and sophisticated serigraphs that play on similar ambiguities. The enunciation—the images and phrases—is framed by a refined composition of geometrical forms and precise juxtaposition of colors that guide the viewer's interpretation. These silkscreens were part of the series of collages titled "Necessary Condition," which has its roots in the artist's childhood fascination with science fiction in literature and cinema.
However, there is an intriguing ambiguity as the stories here are not fictional. The artist used real documents from the past, including quotes from the 1960s newspapers "Nedelia" (translated as "The Week") and "Za rubezhom" (translated as "Abroad" or "Overseas"). These documents are from an era when the world was captivated by the conquest of space, and the Soviet Union demonstrated its greatness by successfully sending the first man into space. The artist commented on these serigraphs, saying: "That we live in this future predicted half a century ago makes us reflect that the act of dreaming and the need for utopias are timeless constants in human beings, regardless of the period. Now that the future has been conquered, the present must be overcome. Harmony is the key to overcoming the madness that surrounds us."
In her more recent serigraphs, which maintain a similar formal elegance and aesthetic quality, we encounter references taken from the press. This time, the artist sourced her material from the Austrian newspaper "Arbeiter Zeitung," which subtly poses existential questions and presents headlines that sow doubt and anchor alternative truths, such as "How do we want to live?" "Finally set us free!" "From day to day," and "Miracles of everyday life." The artist captures and transposes these remarks and questions into her constructive compositions, stating, "It's more a reflection of the times we find ourselves in, through the prism of the past. Times change, headlines remain the same. Witnesses of the time that is going on right now." These works are more enigmatic, focusing on themes of construction, open doors and closed fences, separation and solitude, coldness and calculation in a mysterious way.
Even though Olya Kroytor incorporates readymade images into her paintings, silkscreens, and sculptures, connecting her art to life, they can't match the immediacy of her performances, which forge a particularly strong connection with the audience, both mentally and physically—body to body. Her performances possess a unique natural beauty. They are always, so to speak, "simple" in appearance, yet extremely challenging to execute. Her most spectacular performances are based on physical and mental endurance, sometimes even putting the artist at risk. Despite the poetic and aesthetic qualities of these performances, often indirectly appropriated from art history and fashion, they leave the spectator with a profound sense of anxiety and discomfort.

In a series of performances, the artist has been brutally attached to trees, seemingly in the middle of a forest, or buried in the ground, appearing like a "dead person" (or a sleeping beauty) through a glass that people, willingly or unwillingly, walk upon. These spectacles not only demonstrate extreme endurance and restraint but also evoke a terrifying sense of claustrophobia or even death. In other performances, different kinds of risks are explored, such as in the performance "2344," which creates a sense of awkwardness for the spectators, placing them under embarrassing pressure.
However, in her artistic career, there is a performance that stands out as a major achievement: "The Fulcrum" from 2013. The performance is based on the following instruction:
"Climb onto a 4-meter wooden pole. Stay straight. Stand on it motionless for 2 hours and keep the Fulcrum." (Olya Kroytor, 2013).
"The Fulcrum" is a long-duration performance that requires intense concentration from the performer and mastery of an extraordinary act. The simplicity of the work reveals a minimal and masterful form, and the artist's serenity engages us in existential reflection. "The Fulcrum" is both a symbolic and physical attempt to find a point of balance in reality, where fundamental values constantly change or are replaced by new guidelines. A contradictory fusion of the sensation of flight and the fear of falling translates into a feeling of personal elevation and extreme solitude. The Fulcrum can be seen as a metaphor for solitude that raises questions about who we are and how we can cope with our destiny.
III
Olya Kroytor's artistic expression spans a wide spectrum. Despite this diversity, there is a consistent formal and aesthetic approach in her work, as well as a recurring thematic focus. Generally, her work explores the human condition through narratives that can be either direct statements of facts or metaphorical representations. While her works have clear narrative structures, the content often raises as many questions as it provides answers. Although the subject matter is accessible at first glance, she frequently introduces poetic contradictions that engage the viewer. Initially, it can be challenging to define the meaning of actions in her paintings, collages, and performances, as they rarely adhere to a linear storytelling approach or cause-and-effect logic.
There is a strong ambiguity in the paintings of buildings and vessels overcrowded with figures, often human beings, situated in space, as well as in her collages, serigraphs, and performances. Once the main forms and figures are established—the space, the housing/vessel, the saturation, and the precise, if not geometric, juxtaposition of forms and figures—the artist’s intuitive actions guide the narratives towards the unknown. In this creative process, the spectator is often left with a powerful game of levitation that transforms all subject matter that could have been seen and interpreted, and an eventual utopian vision into metaphysics. One can sense a certain kind of “religiosity” in her use of elevation in both her collages/paintings and performances. Undoubtedly, there is a taste for the extraordinary, partly conveyed through the use of cartoon references, where the most extravagant and excessive actions are naturally possible, and her long-standing interest in science fiction films and literature.
"David Lynch resonates deeply with me because he explores themes that are intimately connected to my own experiences: the study of the internal state and the subconscious, the violation of conventional logic, and the presence of tension and anxiety—though in a viscous manner. His work is filled with absurdity and irony, vulnerability, and offers numerous possibilities for interpretation. Importantly, he does so without imposing violence in his opinions." (Olya Kroytor, mail conversation 02.04.2025).
In fact, Olya Kroytor consistently infuses mystery into her pictorial narratives, transcending scenes that initially appear to be driven by a desire to restore order in conflictual situations. It is within this context that uneasiness emerges, captivating the spectator forcing him to discover another world that hides behind the one we live in.
.Olya Kroytor imbues her actions, paintings, and sculptures with distinct forms and aesthetics. She is committed to developing a unique artistic language, drawing inspiration from early 20th-century Russian constructivism and
mid-20th-century American cartoons, including Pop art. As a contemporary artist, Kroytor actively engages with the international art and cultural scene. She skillfully appropriates and creates forms, figures, and spaces, seamlessly integrating formal "écriture," comic figures, and photographs into her work.
Unafraid to breathe a second life into these appropriated materials, she invents her own narratives, enriching her artistic expression.

Gunnar B. Kvaran, independent curator