Los Angeles-based artist Stas Orlovski fuses old world sensibilities and new age technology into a dreamlike multi-media animated installation entitled Chimera.

Using a vocabulary of images, ideas, and motifs stemming from his life-long fascination with Soviet-era children’s books, Japanese prints, and Dutch botanical illustration, Orlovski creates an animated projection comprised of collages, stencils, drawings, and paintings. Silhouettes of ghostly figures morph in and out of the shapeless frame while plant life grows around them, birds sing atop their shoulders, and quilt-like patterns dance in and out of their sepia-tinted wilderness. The result is a dreamlike installation that dances between animation, drawings, and shadow puppetry. The accompanying ghostly soundtrack of acoustic Victorian-era musical instruments by Steve Roden supports the work’s potent themes of life, death, growth, and decay.

Orlovski was born in Kishinev, Moldova. He received a BFA from York University, a B.Ed from the University of Toronto, and an MFA from the University of Southern California. He has exhibited widely throughout the U.S. with solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and the Bay Area. His work has been included in museums such as Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ponoma College Museum of Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, and Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. Orlovski is represented by Traywick Contemporary in Berkeley, CA.

Stas Orlovksi: Chimera is part of the ongoing series of ICA Sandbox Projects. The distinctive Sandbox Projects encourage artists to experiment, take risks, and create immersive, site-specific installations that would not otherwise be realized. Stas Orlovksi: Chimera is ICA Sandbox Project 10.

Stas Orlovski: Chimera is supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and by ICA Members.