As an artist, I often find it difficult to explain my paintings. From my earliest childhood, I have been influenced by the advice of my artist grandfather, who told me, “if you really have something important to say, draw it rather than putting it into words. Words will disappear anyway.”
If I were asked to describe my art in one sentence, I would use the words of Gabrielle Garcia Marquez – “the world was so new that many things had no names and you had to point your finger at them.”
– Anastasia R. Simes
All of my life I have been fascinated with the “The Human Heart” – its inner workings, broad vistas, its mysteries and drama. As humans, we are constant battlefields. Each day we are pulled in different directions by the many voices that reside in our head, our heart, our heaven, and the underworld, and the voices of our ancestors and voices from childhood. We are actors on a stage of our own life, soldiers on all sides of our inner war, and seducers and the seduced. We live in a turning sphere restricted by time, filled with fire and surrounded by water. In the midst of our own contradictions we attempt to make sense of our lives. Each day we try to decide which way to turn at yet another intersection. And this almost alchemical moment of creating one’s fate is the one that I depict as an artist.
In my paintings I often use close-ups of my subjects; nothing in this physical world is close enough for me. I use symbols because they are the most direct language that speaks to our soul. I use strong colors for emphasis and to give the right “sound” to the intensity of what I want to convey.
My painting vocabulary consists of:
Red, my primary color. It is the color of passion, flesh and blood, and the clay from which Adam was sculpted. It also represents earth, demonic forces, sacred rage, and love.
Black, the canvas in which our world was created, which I often use as a background. It is the silence of the universe just before all things came into existence. It is color of promise and unseen power.
Blue, the color of heaven and cool breezes of the celestial presence. It is the color of resolution and mercy, harmony and hope.
White, the color of purity and forgiveness. It is the color of childhood and protection.
Gold, the color of divinity and our innermost sacred feelings. It is color of conversations with God.
The world is constantly shifting through its own processes, changing perceptions and history, changing its “set and costume designs.” Politics produces breathtaking special effects to accompany the spectacle of its chess game; technical progress promises us eternal life and seduces us with the new apples.
Through the centuries only one thing remains unchanged: the nature of our heart – with its fears and victories, the ability to experience both beauty and evil, and a primal instinct to create a “home” and love our children. I can endlessly look at it . It is what moves my brush.
– Anastasia Rurikov Simes
The paintings of award-winning artist Anastasia Rurikov-Simes have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries, including Art-Monaco, Grimaldi Forum in Monaco; Asia Contemporary in Hong Kong; the Museum of Contemporary Art, the International Visions Gallery, the Alla Rogers Gallery, and the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Washington DC; the Zalman Gallery in New York; the Rybinsk Art Museum in Rybinsk, Russia, the Tula Art Museum in Tula, Russia, Dom Nashchiokina and ART-MANEZH in Moscow. Her work is in public and private collections, including those of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Center for the National Interest in Washington DC.
Anastasia R. Simes creates compelling narrative paintings that capture our attention and hold us in rapture. Her bold, brightly colored images of animated figures emanate intense expression and reveal the breadth and depth of the human drama…
Navigating Anastasia’s paintings is like stepping through the looking glass and entering a world populated by familiar creatures endowed with magical powers. Whether depicting human figures looming large over cityscapes or wild beasts endowed with human expressions, her work evokes the mysterious forces dormant in each of us. Her images, like shamans, intercede between humanity and spirits. Calling on the spirits to heal, to soothe, to lift the tedious burden of the mundane and, at times, to amuse.