Natalya Zanchevskaya is a Russian artist, originally from Siberia, who has been living in Tokyo since 2023. Graduated from the Faculty of Fashion Design of the Ural State Academy of Architecture and Art, Russia.
From 1999 to 2009, she created clothing collections and participated in seasonal fashion weeks. In 2009, she began her career as a costume designer in the film industry.
The difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2020) turned out to be significant for Natalia’s creative path-she returned to graphics and painting.
My main goal is to study the system of human communication with the surrounding environment through body language and the use of cultural codes developed over centuries by multiple generations. I am trying to trace the path of personal and societal development, to find what allows humanity to progress while maintaining moral and ethical guidelines.
In attempting to understand and accept the temporality and transience of what modern society values, I search for a point of support, equilibrium, finding them in the fundamental elements of spiritual development - unity with nature, creation, preservation of cultural codes.
The characters in my works are often in motion, while nature in the background is calm, monumental, and immovable, reminiscent of the extreme fragility of humans compared to the eternal force of nature.
A person, living their short life, eventually disappears completely, leaving a trace of their existence in objects. I emphasize the fragility and temporality of humans by using charcoal for creating faces and visible body parts, a delicate, impermanent material - if not fixed, it threatens to disappear with the slightest touch. In landscapes and objects, especially in clothing, color emerges. On paper or canvas, gouache or acrylic creates a layer that seems dense, more durable compared to the one with just charcoal.
Thanks to my education in fashion design and extensive experience in costume creation for film, I have developed a habit of studying the national and historical costumes of different cultures, paying special attention to color and ornamentation.