MEET ZHANNA

“Art is about letting go. Only by giving up your expectations can you create something beautiful.”

Zhanna Lutova is a Russian painter, designer and art dealer living in Johannesburg, South Africa. Having studied art and fashion design in the 1970s and 80s in the USSR, her creativity has spanned decades and regimes to arrive at the abstract masterpieces she is creating now.

“There are no plans, there are only experiments.”

From her studio based on the West Rand of Johannesburg, Zhanna works in mixed mediums to create multi-dimensional, strikingly original, and uniquely beautiful abstract art. Her signature style is created from mixing acrylics with different mediums which affect the texture and viscosity of the paint – combining this with different ways of pouring, splattering, spinning and hanging the canvases makes every painting a daring experiment. Each new painting can take up to 70 hours to produce.

“People always want to know, ‘is that a river, or a rose?’ and I just say: Yes.”

Zhanna believes abstract art is the best antidote for perfectionism. One piece can reveal different things to different people – some see faces, others letters, still others animals or landscapes. There are no right or wrong answers – like a jewel-toned Rorschach test, each painting holds a thousand meanings, each unlocked by a mindful glance.