Recycled Art, Recent work by Julia Kropinova

March 11, 2015 | R.W. Witt Gallery, California State University - Sacramento

I happen to have enough time between classes last week to stop by a fellow art student’s show at the R.W. Witt Gallery on campus. I had been a little familiar with her work as I had a class with her last semester and I was intrigued to see what she may have done since then or some of her previous pieces. Julia just so happened to be there and the gallery was empty, so I took advantage of the situation and was able to talk with her and ask question about her works.

Me and artist, Julia Kropinova

Her pieces are mostly mixed media, with a few paintings here and there. She seems to use a lot of boards (snowboards and skateboards), cutting them and reconfiguring them for an interesting “canvas”. Hence the title “Recycled Art”, I believe she finds all of her items at thrift stores or wherever she can; she mentioned to me about getting some of the used boards for free from her snowboarder friends. Each of her pieces has a lot going on – some have overlapping layers of string, objects in every nook and cranny available, even glow in the dark paint (I only know that from Julie handing me a flashlight with a black light bulb in it and telling me to walk around with it). Very intriguing work!

Sailing Skate board ship
Mixed media on skateboard

(*see note below) 

Look up and get lost
Mixed media on canvas

(*see note below) 

Example of the glow paint+blacklight before and after on "Flower Power"
Acrylic on canvas

While the subject matter is very apparent in some pieces and not so apparent in others, her style is consistent throughout. In a few pieces, she involves realistic figures or scenes but always seems to add abstract aspects to create a very exciting image. Her pieces have almost a very surrealistic feel to them. One of my favorites (picture above) had black flower outlines staggered up a canvas with a fun and wild abstract, splatter painted background (I believe it’s called “Flower Power”, as I found from her website here). She also had a more minimalist piece that looked like a black dress wrapped in wire, with a set of pearls attached to the wood panel behind the strung up “dress”. It really stood out amongst the rest of her pieces (picture below) and I felt that it was beautifully done.

(*see note below)

It was really nice to talk to Julia about her work and to get to know her a little better. While Julia’s work is not necessarily my style, I found her process of layering and profuse amounts of detail a quality to pick up on with my own work.

*Note: unfortunately the show had no title cards next to the works and I was only able to find titles for certain pieces via her website. I didn't want to leave these photos out as I believe they are a good representation of the work at her show.