Anastasia Shivrina (b. 1991, Italy) is a Russian movement artist and painter whose practice is rooted in dance as both method and philosophy. With over two decades as a contemporary dancer on international stages, Shivrina carries her embodied knowledge of rhythm, gesture, and composition into painting, transforming the ethereal essence of movement into the permanence of visual art. Dance usually remains outside the field of interest of contemporary artists, since it requires not only an understanding of the fundaments of movement and the depth of emotions, but also the ability and preparation to express this fleeting and transitional form of art. Anastasia overcomes this ephemerality by extending the existence of dance, taking it beyond the confines of the “here and now” into the plane of “forever.” Her body is the vehicle, echoing choreographic lines, the rigor of Suprematist geometry, and the emotive force of Abstract Expressionism.
The skeleton, the bare bones of the pieces, are bodily sketches. Driven by adrenaline, the hours of pain, exhaustion and exploration become distant, almost intangible. What remains is the aftermath of a performance. Layers of paint are accumulated by body and hand, like layers of skin; scratched, burned and bruised, viscerally felt, and acutely alive. Segments of movement appear to push through the layers from beneath, like muscle memory and arise again at the surface. The artist invites us to feel the sensations of a dancer in movement and beyond movement, to feel not only the beauty of the moment, but the moments after the expression ends. What is left behind? Physical and psychological weight, memory, history and legacy. The complexity of dance as an art form is held in these layers, simultaneously celebrating and raising questions of dedication, sacrifice and beauty.
Anastasia is currently based in Berlin.
