Music Connected Us: An All-Female Show Redefining #GirlPower by The Artist Workspace
The Artist Workspace Gallery (AWS) recently unveiled its awe-inspiring “all-women” exhibition titled Music Connected Us, which opened to the public on 7 October through 9 October 2022. Curated by Director and Founder Zoë Goetzmann, she fused the individual contributions of two London-based contemporary artists to focus on women supporting women.
To further the conversation by drawing on the theme of #GirlPower, MADE IN BED spoke with Goetzmann and the two artists, Anna Kolosova and Melissa Vipritskaya Topal, about their endeavours and inspirations behind the exhibition aimed at fostering a true sense of female power in the art world, and their own reinterpretations through their unique artistic mediums.
Music Connected Us exhibition, 2022. Courtesy of The Artist Workspace Gallery. Exhibition view at Unit 3 Projects, Bow, 3 Empson Street, London, 2022.
Kolosova and Vipritskaya Topal initially formed a valuable friendship in the London art world through Instagram and online art magazines. Sharing the same interests in music and concerts, the pair have long discussed their projects, ideas, and creative processes. “It must have been the music of human connection/love,” says Anna. “Even though it had seemed a bit unorthodox, something within me said “yes.”
Zoë Goetzmann, The AWS Gallery Director and Founder and curator of the exhibition, acknowledged the strong combination of their works that truly “speaks to their friendship and their working relationships as women artists.” They are “wonderfully bold, colourful, intricate, mesmerizing, vibrant–and go together in such a beautiful, organic way,” Goetzmann says.
Anna Kolosova and Melissa Vipritskaya Topal. Images courtesy of the artists.
Both of their artistic practices are also intrinsically linked to the core mission of AWS: to represent, empower, and increase the visibility of all female artists. “I’ve always felt a strong connection to female artists.” Goetzmann comments. “This is a show about supporting women–especially for those who work in art or in the arts.” These strong intentions resulted in the creation of an inspiring and stand-out female-led exhibition, thus making Music Connected Us come to life and informing the strong female synergy between the two artists and the curator herself.
Anna Kolosova, Big Changes, 2022. Mixed media on canvas, 175 x 110 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Melissa Vipritskaya Topal, Orchestra. MDF, pencil, matt varnish, 85 cm x 55 cm x 8 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Kolosova and Vipritskaya Topal communicated their unique experiences of working together as women artists to further accelerate the importance of the role of women artists who strive to grow in this competitive industry through a collaborative statement:
“There is some kind of healthy competition between us and we motivate each other into reaching new goals and pushing towards more challenges,” says Vipritskaya Topal. “In the art world, it is very difficult to form this type of friendship when your friend/competitor is happy when you achieve your objectives and vice versa. We wanted to celebrate this rare connection by bringing together our two worlds.” Kolosova adds, “We are actually very different, and also quite competitive. But we have been managing to work together very well, this is the third time! Whenever we team up, our energies double. And most importantly, we have fun!”
Zoë Goetzmann, Curator, Director, and Founder of The Artist Workspace Gallery. Photo by Gülce Tulçalı.
Goetzmann recalls, “Often, we fall into the trap of “competition,” which can bring up feelings of anxiety, fear, etc. Through this show, I’d like to impart that collaboration (especially between female creatives) is possible. Competition isn’t always necessary, although it can often be positive and incite amazing inspirations when it comes to creating [artwork].”
From the show which includes 10 to 15 artworks (including one collaborative piece), MADE IN BED selected a few standouts. Both Kolosova and Vipritskaya Topal’s artistic practices demonstrate a particularly powerful level of female engagement with the state of the world we live in through the use of the body, sound, painting, mixed media, and mechanical tools–a crucial underpinning of the exhibition.
Anna Kolosova and Melissa Vipritskaya Topal, Untitled (collaborative sculpture), 2022. Image courtesy of the artists.
Anna Kolosova, Different Result, 2022. Mixed media on canvas, 50 x 40 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Kolosova lives in London and has exhibited internationally in London, Milan, Düsseldorf, and Moscow. Her practice is focused on painting in an ‘expanded field,’ and experiments with materials, dimensions, and life itself. She paints sound, energies, and personal experiences as seen through her synesthetic visions. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, her work has been featured in The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue.
Anna Kolosova, Monochrome, 2022. Mixed media on canvas, 90 x 60 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
“Being a woman means having a certain bouquet of hormones, and with that comes various accompanying ‘states’ we find ourselves in—from getting instantly addicted to our partners after sex to motherhood. When I paint, though, I do not feel like I have any specific gender. I have always been proud of that for some reason. Nonetheless, it IS important to champion women/women-identifying artists these days, as we have never been represented enough. ‘Follow the Plan, Not the Mood’ is the title of one of my artworks in the show. It is a quote from my CBT therapy session. It is a “fake it till you make it” mantra to yourself when you’re not in the mood to get out of bed. A lot of my work is encoded with messages to help whoever sees it overcome their struggles while following my visual journey. Ironically, following one’s plan too hard takes away the beautiful accidental aesthetics. So it is an art to navigate through life in a perfect balance, the same as I am trying to achieve in the paintings.”
Anna Kolosova, Follow the Plan, Not the Mood, 2022. Mixed media on canvas, 170 x 120 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Anna Kolosova, Metallic Sound, 2022. Mixed media on canvas, 100 x 75 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Vipritskaya Topal lives in London and explores the world's intricacies through painting and sculpture using acrylics, markers, and rich pigments. Hybridising nature with mechanical tools and urban landscapes to reflect the chaos, speed, and noise of big cities, her constant research of silhouettes, lines, and forms, and her curiosity for experimentation with different materials and colours inform her own unique style. Also a graduate of Central Saint Martins with pieces exhibited across the UK, she also organises group exhibitions in collaboration with other artists and curators.
Melissa Vipritskaya Topal, Orchestra, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist. Exhibition view at Unit 3 Projects, Bow, 3 Empson Street, London, 2022. Courtesy of The Artist Workspace Gallery.
Melissa Vipritskaya Topal, Colère. MDF, acrylic primer, screws, spray paint, matte varnish, 83 cm x 45 cm x 4 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Melissa Vipritskaya Topal, Between Calculation and Unpredictability. MDF, acrylic primer, spray paint, matte varnish, 105 cm x 75 cm x 8 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Through Vipritskaya Topal’s sculpture Between Calculation and Unpredictability, she investigates how can a painting’s vocabulary, a contour, a silhouette, or a brush stroke, can be made physical and tangible. The visual components of this piece consist of completely different and usually incompatible shapes such as mechanical tools from the Tower Bridge Engine Rooms, different urban landscapes, nature imagery, and environmental elements.
“Similarly to the mechanical components of the Tower Bridge Engine Rooms, different shapes and silhouettes are reunited in my sculpture. There is no synergy when the elements are apart from each other, but they achieve a lot more once assembled. The same logic applies to our all-female team for this exhibition. The shifting of real spaces into digital alternatives influences me as an artist, prompting my practice to shift backwards and forwards between 2D and 3D, a rhymical movement that chimes with the shifting sands of my own cultural identity. As a result, painting and sculpture as interconnected entities define my work.”
Melissa Vipritskaya Topal, Angoisse. MDF, acrylic primer, screws, spray paint, matte varnish. Image courtesy of the artist.
We conclude with a few final words from Goetzmann who eloquently states the mission at hand:
Above all else, I hope this show inspires people and artists to keep on creating, no matter the obstacles. As the founder and director of [AWS Gallery] with a predominately female creative team, I hope this show also speaks to the best of what our talents can showcase to today’s art world. We are redefining ‘women artists’ and to quote The Spice Girls, we are also redefining the still relevant, important words and use of ‘#girlpower.’ I believe that our exhibition shows the best of what female artists have to offer in this art landscape.
Thanks to Zoë Goetzmann, Anna Kolosova, and Melissa Vipritskaya Topal on behalf of MADE IN BED.
Music Connected Us is on view through 9 October at Unit 3 Projects, Bow, 3 Empson Street in London.
Thanarat Asvasirayothin
Contributing Writer, MADE IN BED