Butterflies - a wall sculpture

"This book contains a limited collection of the plethora of vibrant and highly impressive metal cuts created by Marina Zlochin, which emphasize designs based on her templates.

Her metal cuts were born and have evolved from the world of graphic illustration in which she has specialized for several years. Through the medium of metal cutting her illustrations have been transformed into three-dimensional works, with volume and layers of depth that enrich her means of artistic expression.

Marina uses her artistic language to create works in a broad and captivating spectrum of colors, brimming with spirals and unique designs. Her work touches on pop art and caricaturist illustration; it is decorative, at times ironic and always empathic, colorful, full of vitality and optimism. The bright and spectacular colorfulness of her works carry the observer away on a journey into a world that is positive, lighthearted, and full of joy, by way of a complex process that begins with a two-dimensional drawing, is followed by laser cutting and then by hand painting or screen printing the sculpture. Marina’s “wall sculptures” or “table sculptures” resemble “topographic aerated paintings” that have volume and are sometimes double sided and consisting of several layers, that together build depth and create a feeling of movement.

The substantive aspect of metal cutting deals with day-to-day situations that touch on ‘leisure culture, women’s lives, café culture, shopping, bicycle riding, playing hockey, skiing, boating, jogging, human perturbation in the urban space of New York’. A place of honor is given to the naturalist world, with wonderful groupings of birds, butterflies, fish, and more. The world of music is also given mention in Marina’s work when she produces images of the saxophonist, the pianist, or the vocalist in her flouncy dress. The artist also turns to subjects that deal with a combination of motifs from the Judaic sphere. Marina ‘corresponds’ with such mystical objects as the hamsa, when she takes the liberty of decorating it as she sees fit, but does not allow herself to appropriate the possibility of making significant structural changes and leaves the object functional. And with enormous flair, she imparts to the Judaic objects a fresh modern look, as in the case of Hanukkah candelabras, which have eight branches and a Shamash, according to religious Halacha.

Her Hanukkah series showcases wonderful wedding scenes, and Kleizmers, where expression is given to characteristic elements in Marina’s work: colorful layers and fusion that emphasizes movement, causing the viewer to feel as if at any moment the characters will break into dance. In other Hanukka candelabras, she creates palm fronds that turn into canes, surrounded by dynamic scenes such as a girl in a swing, a mother handing out her laundry, a child flying a kite, a nesting bird, an elegant hoopoe bird, and so on.

In the western world, metal sculpture is part of vibrant trend and creation, existing in the same space that encompasses the definitions of art and design. The state of the art technology and the novelty involved in accurate cutting and quality printing, make it possible to push the boundaries of this artistic medium and to develop it in a multitude of ways. And, indeed, it is possible today to see more and more creations of this kind in many galleries throughout the United States, in Germany, Singapore, and elsewhere. Marina Zlochin’s work, too, is sold in leading stores and galleries all over Israel; many of her creations are sold abroad, where they have received extremely good reviews.

Marina Zlochin, who was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1977, absorbed her inseparable ties to the artistic world as a child. Her mother was a graphic designer and her grandfather dealt, among other things, in painting and sculpture. She moved to Israel with her family in 1992, lived in the northern town of Afula and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at the Goren College in the Jezreel Valley. Over the years she has worked as a designer for a leading Tel Aviv advertising company and today she is self-employed and living in Zikhron Ya’akov. She is married and the mother of two daughters.

 Marina serves as an illustrator for the magazines The Marker and Globes as well as for the Matah journal published by the Ministry of Education. She also took part in the Tel Aviv project ‘Songs Along the Way,’ painting portraits of the composers. She creates her metal cut sculptures under the auspices of Joy-Art Gallery."

Orit Lotringer, art curator