St. Thomas Episcopal Church in St Petersburg, FL is pleased to host ICONS in Transformation, a traveling modern art exhibition of 100+ contemporary works by the internationally acclaimed Russian-Swedish abstract expressionist Ludmila Pawlowska. The exhibit will introduce Pawlowska’s work and shed new light on this prolific and influential artist who presents traditional Russian icons as a source of inspiration for contemporary art. The exhibition is opening in St Petersburg, Florida on November 24, 2019 from 2:00pm – 4:00pm.

Meet the Artist: Ludmila Pawlowska will be in St. Petersburg shortly before the opening on November 24th and available for interviews. To secure an interview, contact Mary Jane Park, ICONS Transformation Chair at 727-896-9641.

The exhibit has toured cathedrals, museums and galleries in Europe, and the U.S., including Seattle, Indianapolis, Little Rock, St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Chattanooga, Sarasota, Cincinnati, San Diego, Denver, Tucson, and Reno. St. Thomas Episcopal Church is pleased to offer Pawlowska’s art and vision for the first time to the central Florida art community. Most works are available for purchase and proceeds will benefit St. Thomas’ outreach ministries to those in need.

The current ICONS in Transformation exhibit includes between 100-130 pieces of Pawlowska’s contemporary works as well as a dozen traditional icons created at the workshop of Vassilevsky Monastery in Suzdal, Russia.

Over her long and distinguished career, Pawlowska has worked with a wide range of genres, both figurative and abstract. She’s worked with wood, fabric, paper, steel, copper, plywood and Plexiglas, as well as found objects. Her work has earned rave reviews for its originality and evocative qualities, ranging from startling “in your face” dramatic expression to ethereal contemplative beauty that draws the viewer in.

Sir Roy Strong, former Director of the National Portrait Gallery and the Victorian & Albert Museum, London writes: “She (Pawlowska) makes paintings in a vein of contemplative abstraction; her images are intuitive and enigmatic. She uses as many techniques, additives and ways of applying acrylic/oil paint as possible so as to create a surface that entices the viewer and accentuates the process of looking. Her practice as an artist is an attempt to create objects that are beautiful – for beauty reminds us what it is to be human.”

Berndt Arell, Director at the National Museum of Stockholm states:
“These paintings of Pawlowska have a contemplative beauty of their own; they also transmit light and miraculously, a sensation of calm and show at the same time the artist’s feelings…And feeling rather than sensation is what good art is about: feeling, and freedom from nostalgia if we consider the best 20th-21st century art from Picasso to Pawlowska. She makes Art in which femininity, religion, dramatic expression and esthetica beautifully come to harmony.”

About the Artist: Ludmila Pawlowska was born in 1964 in exile, in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Republic. Although she did not have a religious upbringing, she chose to be baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church when she was 18, an illegal act at the time. After the fall of the Soviet Union, she moved to Sweden, where she and her husband Jan Lech run the Scandinavian Art Center. She continues to develop her abstract expressionism style of painting and sculpture, characterized by using many layers of paint to produce highly textured artworks.

The ICONS in Transformation exhibit features paintings created by Pawlowska over a decade. She began creating the “icons” after the sudden death of her mother. She found comfort recalling the icons she had seen in Russia monasteries and worked through her grief through her own artwork. For more information on Pawlowska, please visit www.ludmilapawlowska.se

About St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Founded in 1952, St. Thomas Episcopal Church is a member of the Southwest Florida Diocese of the Episcopal Church. The church is located at 1200 Snell Isle Boulevard, NE in St Petersburg, FL and is open to all members of the community.

ICONS Contact:
Mary Jane Park, Icons in Transformation Chair
IconsStPete@gmail.com
St. Thomas Episcoal Church
1200 Snell Isle Boulevard NE
St Petersburg, FL 33704
727-896-9641

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