Priska C. Juschka Fine Art is pleased to present Scotoma, Taras Polataiko’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. This exhibition will include recent selections from Polataiko’s ongoing series of life-scale paintings of his own eyes. Referencing the definition of scotoma—a spot in the visual field in which vision is absent or deficient—the paintings subtly toy with concepts of observation and representation.

In this intimate series, Polataiko seeks to disrupt and restructure the process in which one views a painting. Each of the small acrylic paintings in Scotoma will be placed behind a narrow rectangular opening in the wall, as if peering from within the depths of a clandestine location. Scattered upon the gallery walls, the eyes metaphorically follow the visitors as they walk around the bare space, evoking a haunting sense of two-way voyeurism. Due to the nature of the paintings’ subject, the gaze of the visitors is deflected back to them as a role reversal occurs between subject and viewer, as well as art and reality. This playful exchange will be further reinforced as Polataiko adds a third dimension to the paintings via the surprise appearances he will make at the gallery throughout the course of the exhibition.

In keeping with his general art practice, Polataiko returns here to the origin of his subject in order to reevaluate its fundamental characteristics, and ultimately alter our perception of it. In Scotoma, the eye is brought forth as a person’s defining physical attribute, given that it is inherently expressive and undergoes very few visible changes over the years. Representing Polataiko’s own eyes, these paintings thus effectively strip his nature down to its core—undermining the personality he has carefully constructed throughout the years. As art materializes here into life, these intense and disconcerting paintings leave one with a sense that they are not only exposed to Polataiko’s most raw state, but also to the limitations of their own self-definition.

Taras Polataiko was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine and currently lives and works in New York, NY. He received his MFA at the University of Saskatchewan, and his BFA at the Moscow Stroganov Institute of Fine and Industrial Arts. He was a 2008 resident artist at Art Omi International Arts Center, Omi, New York. His work has been the subject of several solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad, including the Antoni Tapies Foundation, Barcelona, Spain, the 25th Sao Paulo Biennale of Contemporary Art, Brazil, Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Canada, and Soros International Center for Contemporary Art, Kiev, Ukraine. Forthcoming exhibitions include the Mass MoCA, Massachusetts, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, New York, The Annex, Winnipeg and National Museum of Fine Art, Kiev, Ukraine.