Anastasia Bay's "An Afternoon with Vita" features soft pastel hues with flowing, abstracted shapes forming intertwined figures on a muted background. The painting presents distorted human forms, their elongated bodies and faces suggesting movement and emotional depth. Bay employs a style reminiscent of carnival and theater with an emphasis on expressive simplicity. This work explores themes of irony and societal norms, capturing the essence of human character through minimalist, assertive lines, reflecting influences from artists like Philip Guston. ...
Anastasia Bay’s paintings present scenes borrowed from theater, opera or the carnivalesque scenes of Ensor or Brueghel the Elder. Her characters embody the irony of overturning society's established roles and norms at these moments of popular gathering. Bay’s work is all about contrast and balance in a very cathartic way. The choice of a precise fragment of reality in her works dissolves any narration. The mysterious, sometimes disturbing characters are caught in vibrant movements, blurring the lines of their barely sketched bodies and faces. There is a search for simplicity in her gesture, seeking for the essence of the being she is depicting. She shares with Philip Guston or Gérard Gasiorowski a bluntness in the works and the ability to express very vivid emotions through a very simple and assertive line. ...
