Kalfayan Galleries present the solo exhibition of Sasha Streshna titled “Devon Loch”. The opening will take place on Wednesday, 28 June 2023 (19.00 – 22.00).

In her solo exhibition at Kalfayan Galleries, Sasha Streshna presents a new series of oil paintings which continues her research on western history painting tradition, focusing primarily on depictions of violence, repression and authority.

In her new series, Streshna references found images from soviet textbooks. While obscuring the evidence that would allow the viewer to recognise an event, Streshna converts the illustrations through a painting language that entails suggestive contours and a colour pallet with no apparent contrasts. Hence, the stories of rebellions are explored as incoherent and emotionally charged memories, rather than particular events.

The title of the exhibition “Devon Loch” refers to the name of a famous royal racehorse, which fell - for no apparent reason - on the final straight just as it was about to finish first in the 1956 UK Grand National. The phrase to do a Devon Loch is still used to explain a sudden, last-minute failure of someone who was expected to win.  Although, at first glance, the title suggests failure to comprehend and reshape the world of both painting and the political act, at the same time it also implies that insubordination is one of the most remarkable expressions of self-determination and free will. An incoherent memory, therefore, holds the potential to become a future possibility.

Sasha Streshna was born in 1987 in Lviv, Soviet Ukraine and she has been living in Athens since 1999. She is a graduate of Athens School of Fine Arts and has obtained a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins, London.  She is a recipient of the Jannis Spyropoulos Award (2016) and the ARTWORKS Stavros Niarchos Artist Fellowship (2019/2020).

Recent exhibitions include: “Statecraft (and Beyond)” (cur. Katerina Gregos), ΕΜΣΤ National Museum of Contemporary Art (Athens, 2022) · “On Hearing of an Absence” (cur. Dinos Chatzirafailidis), Haus N Αthen (Athens, 2022) · “There was a land here before” (cur. Ammophila), Elafonisos School (Elafonisos, 2022) · “there is nothing inevitable about time” (cur. locus athens), TAVROS (Athens, 2022) · “21: New Greek Painting” (cur. Eleni Koukou, Theophilos Tramboulis), Municipal Gallery of Agios Nikolaos (Crete, 2021) · “Revolting Bodies” (cur. Alexis Fidetzis), Atopos CVC (Athens, 2021) · “Against the Linear” (cur. Konstantinos Lianos), KEIV (Athens, 2021) · “Sleeping with a tiger” (cur. Nikolas Vamvouklis), K-Gold Temporary Gallery (Lesvos, 2020) · “HELLO!” solo exhibition curated by Ilias Papailiakis at space 52 (Athens, 2019).

27 June – 10 September 2023: The artist participates in the group show titled “ENCORE: New Greek Painting” at the Athens Municipal Gallery (cur. Eleni Koukou, Christoforos Marinos and Theophilos Tramboulis)