Yulia Iosilzon (b. 1992, Moscow, Russia) is an artist living and working in London.
Iosilzon works in painting and ceramics. Her figurative paintings on stretched transparent fabric are portals into vivid dreamlike worlds with roots in both ancient mythologies and contemporary social concerns. Iosilzon’s works hint at unfolding narratives of human-animal metamorphosis. Her visual references are wide ranging; as well as exploring the Jewish iconography of her heritage, Iosilzon also draws on imagery from childhood cartoons and representations of paradise. The works establish internal rhythms through the inclusion of repeated details or iterative patterns such as waving hair or the undulating bodies of snakes. Expressive human faces emerge from landscapes or peek through swathes of vegetation, shifting through registers of emotional resonance as a tool for connecting with the viewer.
Although on the surface her works have a cheery cartoonish appeal, they also often harbour a subtle air of menace. With their smooth, gleaming surfaces, they offer reflections on humankind and express concern over the products of our time such as over-consumption, over-pollution, and social instability. From crisis to paradise, banal to profound, Iosilzon’s practice is concerned with the narratives we share to make sense of the world around us.
Iosilzon holds an MA in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art, London (2019) and a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2017).
