Tamara Kostianovsky - Skin Deep, GALERIE RX, Paris - New York

For her third solo exhibition at RX&SLAG Gallery Paris, Tamara Kostianovsky presents a selection of works, some of which were created during her 2024 artist residency in Chaïm Soutine's former studio at the Cité Falguière.
The exhibition title, À fleur de peau ("Skin Deep"), is far from incidental. It refers to a French expression describing emotions so intense that they seem to lie just beneath the skin, ready to surface at the slightest touch. Through this evocative title, the artist invites visitors to discover her work.

The exhibition opens with a striking monumental work: a dead bird suspended by its feet, slowly rotating on itself. Through this piece, Kostianovsky pays direct tribute to the dead birds painted by Expressionist artist Chaïm Soutine.
The choice of animal is deliberate: it is a vulture, a scavenger whose natural role is to dispose of carcasses. Here, however, it becomes trapped in its own fate. Stripped of its ecological function, it becomes a victim of human intervention. The bird also carries deeper symbolism. With its wings spread, it recalls the Christian iconography of the ultimate sacrifice—the Crucifixion. Fascinated by the rich visual traditions of Christianity, the artist invites viewers to reflect on animal death and the notion of sacrifice. In this work, the vulture replaces the body of Christ, raising thought-provoking questions: can this substitution be seen as a form of hope? A symbol of redemption through the animal's own death?

Throughout the exhibition, a series of panels reveals vividly coloured birds radiating captivating energy. In contrast to the vulture, these works celebrate vibrant, exuberant life.
To create these panels, the artist draws inspiration from the legacy of colonialism. She references the historic wallpapers produced by the French manufacturer Zuber, whose idyllic landscapes filled with luxuriant vegetation concealed the realities of colonial expansion. These colourful compositions carry a powerful hidden message: an invitation not to forget history. Kostianovsky incorporates exotic bird species from the Americas that are now endangered, illustrating the destructive legacy of colonialism on wildlife and ecosystems that continues to this day.

The artist's practice thus takes on a broader significance. She explores themes of the environment, violence, and consumer culture while conveying a message of optimism. This is where the paradoxical strength of being à fleur de peau lies: embracing the full intensity of feeling, transforming vulnerability into strength—a quality embodied in Kostianovsky's work. Following the death of her father, a surgeon, in 2017, the artist began using his clothing, along with garments belonging to family members, to create sculptures of dead trees. These works explore memory, fragility, and resilience in the face of destruction.

In the gallery's lower level stands a monumental cut tree trunk. Kostianovsky's trees symbolize the capacity of what has been destroyed to regain meaning and beauty through the transformation of recycled materials. This process also evokes the hope that can emerge from what appears fragile or lost.

Deeply committed to environmental issues, Kostianovsky's work reveals another dimension of the expression À fleur de peau. Beneath the gallery's glass roof stands a fragmented tree carrying powerful symbolism. Although uprooted from its environment, the tree is not dead: shades of red and pink line the interior of its trunk, recalling veins and the flow of blood within the human body. This visual echo between tree and human underscores the continuity of life, revealing a life that remains, quite literally, skin deep.