Exhibition "Everyone Here Has Wings"

Does everyone have wings? Everyone does. Life itself gives us wings, and sometimes, on the contrary, it tears our wings off. It is our inspiration, our love, our kindness; it is our feelings, experiences and thoughts. And here, at the exhibition, they will certainly appear in everyone, even in those who are still searching.

Olga Shabalina's works are capable of evoking different emotions: some will feel warmth and love, some will find an idea at the exhibition or recall something, but there will be no one who is indifferent.

Olga likes to speak about her works through the works themselves; this is a literate and powerful approach. What she wants to say, she shows. Her signature technique is a combination of resin and papier-mâché. Artificially created chemical compounds turn into solid masses — a description of working with epoxy resin — yet Olga's pieces appear light and as if about to take off; their wings are quite unusual. The technique of casting figures from epoxy resin helps create transparent, "glowing" faces of the characters, which has become the artist's calling card. In each such luminous face we see dried flowers, which add tenderness, poeticism and dreaminess to the image.

Olga is a theatrical artist; her images show a blend of sculpture and doll — this approach creates a style and goes beyond mere "doll-likeness." The characters are expressive, complete, legible and at the same time both understandable and not fully understood; they retain a mystery, a story, and they resonate in the soul.

Olga was born in Leningrad, and part of the exhibition is dedicated to our city; it is a special visual reflection of love and a deep understanding of a place that inspires many and has its own history. Angels, mythical beings — sphinxes, centaurs and many others — are the author's favorite characters. Often even human figures have a certain fairy-tale tinge. The artist wants to share her sense of magic. Such characters are exactly what you encounter at the exhibition in the Toy Museum.

This magic, as the artist shows, actually exists in our world. Traveling sphinxes, fairy-forest creatures, protecting angels — they all welcome us.

The exhibition at the Toy Museum runs until January 26, 2025.