Boxed in by Desire

In the atmospheric paintings of Viktor Kobylianski, the boundary between nature and industry is blurred and this series evokes a strange intimacy with the urban sublime, a place where beauty grows out of desolation, where rough concrete and cold steel meet the warmth of human longing. Kobylianski’s compositions are layered in a way that recalls fading light at dusk: colors drift in hazy layers, softened by his use of unconventional media. In this use of material and color, Kobylianski is able to capture the sensibility of cities, the muted colors, and the material strength.