Galerie Kandlhofer is pleased to present 'Helium Ecstasy' a solo exhibition by Alina Kunitsyna (*1981 Belarus, lives and works in Vienna and Damtschach). Kunitsyna studied at the Lyceum of Art, Minsk and the University of Art and Design, Linz, graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna in 2007. 

Whilst Alina Kunitsyna was at the Art Lyceum in Minsk she spent her years extensively studying the still lives of the Renaissance period, both the theoretical and practical. These artworks contained precious objects like orthodox garments, ancient decanters or featured the vanitas motifs. The imitation of this époque made an experience that laid the foundation for her skillset. 

Today Kunitsyna seeks her inspiration in current pop culture, everyday life and art history but always in the context of capricious jokes and allegories that capture the confusion of life. There is a special attention and love to detail and this willingness to refine the common things in life.

The title of the exhibition "Helium Ecstasy" is taken from the text "Love will tear us apart again" by Vitus Weh, who associates Kunitsyna´s work with an emotional world and provides it with a poetic language.

"...Punk comes into it by virtue of the meticulous precision. The contrast between the banality of these objects and the time-consuming workmanship involved in representing them is provocative, provocation being taken here in the literal sense of “calling forth”. What is called forth are feelings which we are able to remember, or presentiments of feelings – generally the unconscious. The most striking example of this is the so beautifully pink and ready-to-burst inflated tube, formed into the word “love”, shining like metal – a motif that Alina Kunitsyna has sumptuously rendered several times as a pen and ink drawing. We all know how ephemeral these helium ecstasies can be! Not even when love is preserved as art can it be kept intact; but the preservation consoles melancholy with beauty."

- Text excerpt from "Love will tear us apart again" by Vitus Weh