Viewing Flora Yukhnovich: Thirst Trap

Flora Yukhnovich has rapidly become one of the darlings of the contemporary art world, with collectors and art enthusiasts bustling to get to her dramatic paintings that filter the language of Rococo through a singular contemporary lens. Just this week, one of her paintings, Tu vas me faire rougir (You’re going to make me blush) (2017), fetched £1.9 million (US $2.5 million) at Christie’s 20/21 Shanghai to London sale — almost eight times its estimate.

Now Victoria Miro, the London gallery that represents the British artist, is staging a solo exhibition of new works, where we see Yukhnovich explore the depictions of Venus. In her signature style that fluctuates between abstraction and figuration, the artist this time turns her attention to a range of influences that span different representations of the Roman goddess, synthesising them into lush canvases full of movement and energy. With her brushstrokes, Yukhnovich unpacks Venus as a symbol of love, maternal care, erotic desire and even violence.