Natalia Laluque

"The way we look at the world is a reflection of our inner self.  One person can pass a beautiful garden and not notice it, and another person can find beauty in the most cluttered up corner."

information      resume'       artist statement       article1      article 2

Natalia no longer has work available at Artists in Residence, but we are happy to facilitate sales with the artist directly.  She is located in Toronto, Canada.

 

The pieces shown below are new works Natalia completed in Kiev.  Information about these pieces is available, please contact Artists in Residence.

Natalia Laluque came to AIR for an exhibition of her works entitled "Steam Life" in June of 1999.  She was a studio partner of resident artist Genna Grushovenko in Kiev, where they both were members of the potter's cooperative Gonchary.

Working equally comfortably in clay and paint, Natalia creates paintings based on the beauty of everyday life and sculpture which is reminiscent of lost civilizations which may or may not have existed.  She says "the way we look at the world is a reflection of our inner self.  One person can pass a beautiful garden and not notice it, and another person can find beauty in the most cluttered up corner."

Natalia's work has been shown extensively in Kiev, Ukraine and also in the U.S., Germany, and Canada.  She was honored with a purchase award at the high profile Aim for Art contest in Vancouver in 2000.  She, her two sons, and husband Mykola Laluque emigrated to Toronto from their home country of Ukraine in May of 2003.

Natalia was featured in the well respected Ukrainian art publications 200 Names and The Art of Ukraine of the 20th Century:

Artist Statement

Every manifestation of nature, be it a wonderful garden with beautiful trees and miraculous birds, a shabby corner of a house in an old deserted city district, or even the stones lying on the dusty road in front of that house - all contain beauty. We humans contain it as well. It exists regardless of whether we realize it or only feel its presence and guess about it.  One can find ones' world reflected in ordinary daily occurrences.  Every time you leave your home you may find yourself in a different place. If you open your eyes wide, the way to this new place will be clear without fail.

-Natalia Laluque

Resume

Born 1968 in Kiev, Ukraine 

EDUCATION 

1989-93Classes in Olga Krylova painter studio, Kiev.

1983-85 Kyiv Polytechnic Institute; speciality  Graphics.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

2003 Laluque!  YaDesign Show-room, Kiev, Ukraine.  www.yadesign.com

2002 Laluque!  Oder24 Gallery, Berlin, Germany.  www.oder24.com

2001 New collection Gonchary Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine.

2000 Another City  Galerie Im Flur, AMO Culture and Congress House

         Magdeburg, Germany.

         Steam Life  Artists In Residence  

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

2003

53rd  International ceramics competition, International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy (catalogue).

The 2nd World Ceramic Biennale 2003 Korea(CEBIKO) International Competition, Icheon World Ceramic Center San 69-1 Gwango-dong, Icheon-shi Gyeonggi-do, South Korea (catalogue).   www.worldceramic.or.kr

Decorative art of Ukraine of the end of XX-th century, Ukranian House, Kiev, Ukraine (catalogue).

2002

The cub, Art-club CULT, Moscow, Russia, represented by Ukrainian show-room YaDesign.

Artdept, International Internet-Competition - modern art, Ausralia. www.artdept.com

2001

Signe Grushovenko & Natalia Laluque: Callaway Center for International Business Development at West Georgia Technical College, Georgia, USA.

TypeArt International competition, Moscow, Russian, 1st prize (diploma).

Artdept, International Internet-Competition - modern art, Australia.

2000

27-th Annual Toys Designed by Artists Exhibition, The Arkansas Arts Center, Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, USA (catalogue).

5th Cairo International Biennale for Ceramics exhibition CAIRO 2000, National Center for Fine Arts, Giza, Egypt (catalogue).

25th International Gouds Pottenbakkers Festival, Gouda, Holland (catalogue).

AIM For ARTS International Competition\Exhibition, Federation of Canadian artists (FCA), Vancouver, Canada (catalogue).  www.artists.ca

International Art fair LineArt, Gent, Belgium.

1997

Ceramics, Grafics & Space: Galerie im Flur, AMO Culture and Congress House, Magdeburg, Germany.

Art-project Seasons, Studio Evgeny Zavarzin, Kiev, Ukraine.

1993

Tea-Pot-93, exhibition space of AU of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine.

1992

Studio-2, Honchary Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine.

CATALOGUES

53rd International Ceramic Competition. International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy, 2003.

The 2nd World Ceramic Biennale 2003 Korea(CEBIKO),

International Competition. Icheon World Ceramic Center San 69-1 Gwango-dong, Icheon-shi Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, 2003.

Decorative art of Ukraine of the End of XXth Century. Ukranian House, Kiev, Ukraine

AIM For ARTS, International Competition\Exhibition. Federation of Canadian artists (FCA), Vancouver, Canada.

5th Cairo International Biennale for Ceramics exhibition CAIRO 2000. National Center for Fine Arts, Giza, Egypt

27-th Annual Toys Designed by Artists Exhibition. The Arkansas Arts Center, Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, USA, 2000.

25th International Gouds Pottenbakkers Festival. Gouda, Holland.

The Art of Ukraine of the XX Century.Ukrainian House, Kyiv, 1998.

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LOCAL ARTIST'S WORK LANDS IN CANADA

By Anna Kozmina

A Kyivan walking around the currently ongoing Aim For Arts exhibit in Vancouver might do a double take upon seeing a familiar site on one of the canvases: One of the seven legendary hills of Kyiv. In the foreground are some more generic items - a group of decrepit houses, an old poplar tree and a "yield" sign. But there's little doubt that the painting depicts a hot, sleepy summer evening in Kyiv's Podil district.

The painting, titled "Free Way," is the work of local Kyiv artist Natalia Laluque (Makyeyeva). It is currently on display as part of Aim For Arts, an exhibition/contest of international artists in Canada.

"I pass this place daily as I walk to my studio, and one day I just developed a growing urge to paint it. There is nothing special about this nook, just perhaps the hill, which seems to appear from out of nowhere as you round the corner, and the yield sign, which kind of signals you to slow down."

Laluque was one of 210 finalists out of some 1,400 initial entries to qualify to have one painting displayed at the Aim For Arts exhibit. Most impressively, she was the only artist from Eastern Europe to be chosen.The painting that got her there is typical of her work.

"My friends call me 'city child' and say that for me the most urban and horrible is the most beautiful," Laluque laughed. And that is not a joke; it's Laluque's philosophy.

"The way we look at the world is a reflection of our inner self. One person can pass a beautiful garden and not notice it, and another person can find beauty in the most cluttered up corner," Laluque said. In Canada, which boasts a large Ukrainian community, Laluque's achievement has special significance. For diaspora Ukrainians who have never or have rarely returned to the homeland, her artwork serves as a small window to Ukraine, she said, and she prides herself in being somewhat of a cultural messenger.

But mostly she downplays her achievement."There is nothing unique about me and my works," said Laluque, who is better known in Kyiv's artistic circles as a potter and ceramist. "If other Ukrainian artists only knew about this contest, I'm sure there would have been many more finalists from Ukraine." So how did she find out about it? "I was simply browsing the Internet when I came across the contest information," she confessed. "I am lucky to both have access to the Internet and to know English well enough to understand what's on it."

She had told many of her friends about the contest, but they were unable to meet the deadlines and requirements, which involved doing an interview and writing up an artistic statement in English. It took Laluque three days to find a way to transfer her participation fee. Mailing just $30 required so much bureaucratic fuss that she almost gave up. She ended up borrowing a friend's credit card to get the job done. Also working in Laluque's favor was the fact that she did not need to mail her canvases from Ukraine, which she probably could not have afforded. She mailed them from the United States, where she had held a month-long exhibit in Atlanta, Georgia, last June. Laluque sent two pieces, a still life and a landscape, to the judges, and the landscape - a more colorful and dreamy painting - was chosen.  "When later I went through the Aim For Arts catalogues, I noticed that the contest tended more toward Ukrainian-style art - bright, full of color and expression," Laluque said. She also said that whenever she exhibits her works in a Western country, both viewers and fellow artists express a special interest in her works and personality because she comes from Ukraine.  "Westerners know about Ukraine only by hearsay, and of course they are surprised to know that we can produce something worthy - no worse than what they produce," she said.

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