The Alchemy and the Ecstasy

The Alchemy and the Ecstasy

Exhibition statement: Keith Estiler
On March 23, 2023, Allouche gallery will unveil The Alchemy and the Ecstasy, which

showcases Hannah Yata's most extensive collection of artwork.

In The Alchemy and the Ecstasy, Yata's paintings are bursting with enthusiastic joy and surreal dreamscapes that capture the transitional zone between fear and wonder. Her artwork harmonizes the human body, ritual, and growth with all other living beings. Using alchemical symbols, Yata's work portrays the transformation of the soul as it undergoes a metamorphosis through its encounters with light and darkness. Myths and ancient symbols take us back to the subconscious psyche, where Yata's colossal female forms urge us to become initiated in their world and play in the realm of both the material and spiritual, delving into the enigma of existence.

Throughout her practice, Yata aims to merge the similarities between the subconscious and the challenges of the natural world, and how they correspond with attitudes towards the female body and the environment. Through the incorporation of various masks, she conveys different emotions and personalities, and also demonstrates her interest in diverse cultures and tribes. Yata employs body paint and designs to evoke a sense of getting in touch with the earth and its life forces, while also celebrating energy and untamed nature. Her paintings present surreal and psychedelic landscapes that brim with both tension and beauty, grotesqueness and wildness, giving rise to exhilarating and transformative dreamscapes.

She once expressed: “The pictures forming in my head are ones of domination over nature, the struggle of animals in a changing world, and the effects of a changing world on animals and humans. Women became the metaphor for mother nature as a wild and sexual thing, exploited and explored in my work, and animals became the subjects of examining abnormalities and evolution. Taking ideas that I had learned from ideas on feminism, I began to draw parallels in our ways of controlling and objectifying women to how we also think about the earth and its resources therein.”

Altogether, Yata's paintings revolve around themes of the natural world and the animal kingdom, as she endeavors to find a point where the subconscious and the physical world intersect, particularly in the context of the female body set amidst natural surroundings. Yata's works convey the compelling notion of being more connected to the earth and its life forces, as well as celebrating the exhilaration of untamed energy. Through her vivid color palette, Yata creates surreal dreamscapes that evoke both a sense of tension and visions of pure beauty.

The Alchemy and the Ecstasy will open on March 23, 2023 at Allouche Gallery in New York City.