OPERA PORTRAITS
1997-24
Between 1997 and 2024, Alla painted portraits of world-renowned opera singers and conductors from life at the Royal Opera House in London. These included:
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Conductor Sir Antonio Papano, music director of the Royal Opera House
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Conductor Sir Edward Downes
- Singer Sir John Tomlinson - as Boris Godunov in Modest Mussorgsky’s ‘Boris Godunov’ opera; Boris Ismailov in Dmitri Shostakovich’s ‘Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk’; Méphistophélès in Arrigo Boito’s ‘Méphistophélès’ opera; Hagen in Richard Wagner's ‘Götterdämmerung’ opera; Hunding in Richard Wagner's ‘Die Walküre’ opera; and Asterious in Harrison Birtwistle’s ‘The Minotaur’ opera
- Singer Dmitri Hvorostovsky - as Onegin in Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’ opera
- Singer Sir Bryn Terfel - as Wotan in Richard Wagner’s ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ opera
- Singer Dame Felicity Lott - as Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier’ opera
- Angela Gheorghiu - as Magda in Puccini's ‘La rondine’ opera
- Singer Sir Willard White - as Coppélius in Jacques Offenbach’s ‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ opera
- Singer Sir Thomas Allen - as Don Alfonzo in Mozart's ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ opera
- Singer Jose Cura - as Samson in Camille Saint-Saëns’ ‘Samson and Delilah’ opera
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Testimonials:
- Sir Bryn Terfel: “The portrait looks fabulous. I love it. And it is exactly what I did on the stage. Thanks for that.”
- Sir John Tomlinson: “Alla captured so vividly and with such insight the characters I played on stage reaching into the very soul of these creations.”
- Sir Thomas Allen: "Thank you, Alla, so much for your portrait of me as Don Alfonso. I look like one of those awful men referred to as a lounge lizard. You captured him well. Brava."
Exhibited in London at: Royal Society of Portrait Painters; Royal Opera House; and Russian London Culture House.
PRINCE CHARLES PORTRAIT SERIES
2000-02
The portrait series of King Charles III (former Prince Charles) was created in 2001-02 following a sitting at Highgrove. The portraits including the 'Black Prince' and 'Prince of Cool' featured on the front pages of The Times (UK) and Bild (Germany), as well as ITV, BSN, Der Spiegel, Hello, Jackdaw Art Review, and other press and media. ‘Black Prince’ became a cover of the literary magazine Der Freund (Germany) and won the Lead Award's Gold Medal ‘The Best Magazine Cover of 2005'.
The work was exhibited at Ebury Galleries ( John Adams Fine Art) in London's Belgravia in 2002.
THE 20TH CENTURY DICTATORS
2002-2009
This series includes paintings, placards, posters, billboards, floor adhesive prints, wallpaper and textiles, merchandise items, and animations. It explores historical figures such as Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Mao Zedong, and Stalin within a contemporary context.
The 20th Century Dictators series was exhibited at Crone Gallery in Berlin in 2007. Alla was named the 'Critic's Choice' by Saatchi Art in November 2007.
Animation 'Christ is Not an Aryan' was screened on Europe’s largest digital screen on top of the Axel Springer building and was dabbed as “one of three things to see in Berlin” by Bild (Germany) and BZ Magazine (Germany).
'Siamese Twins' painting featured as ‘The Image of the Week' in The Times' Art Review.
The life-size portraits featured in the literary magazine Der Freund (Germany) in December 2005.
Other images also featured in Berliner Morgenpost, Sleek magazine, and Die Welt.
The series is composed of these nine art groups:
- Five full length paintings of Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Stalin, and Franco’, oil on gessoed wood
- Four ‘Heads’, adhesive floor acrylic prints
- Four plus ‘Torsos’, posters
- Four 'Limb Compositions', posters
- One ‘Dictators TM’, large a 48-sheet billboard poster
- One 'Group Portrait', a Dictators' group portrait, oil on paper painting mounted on board
- ‘Christ is not an Aryan’, an animation
- Paintings ‘Siamese Twins’ and 'They have not stopped dancing yet', oil on wood
- Various merchandise items such as a Dictators Mug and Dictators Cushions.
That are intended to be exhibited as the following environs:
- Five original full length Hitler, Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Stalin, and Franco paintings
- Four Large ‘Heads’ vinyls and the 'Dictators TM’ billboard
- Four large ‘Torsos’ posters
- Four large 'Limbs Composition' posters accompanied by 'organic sounds of personal nature' acoustic environment activated by the motion-sensing technology
- 'Group Portrait' wallpaper covers three walls of the room; ‘Christ is not an Aryan’ is projected on an empty wall; there is a sofa in the room upholstered in 'Group Portrait' fabric
- Original ‘Siamese Twins’ and 'They have not stopped dancing yet' painting
- And the final environ: various merchandise items are sold; the audience ‘buys into the Dictators’.
Environ 1.
The original full length paintings of Hitler, Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Stalin, and Franco
Environ 2.
This environ assembles a series of placards titled ‘Heads’ and a billboard titled 'Dictators TM’
Heads were digitally removed from scanned full-length oil paintings of dictators and intend to be displayed as floor-adhesive vinyl prints. This method contrasts with traditional commemorative portraits of revered figures. By presenting these at a lower, everyday level, the artist critiques how society venerates and normalises controversial legacies. The floor placement undermines the glorification, urging viewers to reconsider how we engage with troubling historical figures.
- Environ 3.
- ‘Torsos’
The Torsos sub-series explores the physical and moral destruction inflicted by dictators. Using digital technologies to cut and reassemble original full-figure paintings, the artist creates compositions where torsos are mutilated and arms are distorted, reflecting themes of retribution, mythology, and symbolism.
Environ 4.
Sub-series of prints/placards titled 'Limb composites'
The sub-series Limb Composite delves deeper into the identities of the 20th century dictators, focusing on the grotesque/'twisted.' By using digital technologies to cut and reassemble original images, the artist creates compositions with their legs depicted in crossed or dance-like poses, emphasising the distorted, hidden and unsettling aspects of their personas.
Environ 5.
This sub-section assembles together two artworks: 'Dictators group wallpaper', and an animation ‘Jesus is Not an Aryan’.
Environ 6.
Double portraits
Environ 7.
Memorabilia shop
In this "Memorabilia Shop" sub-series, the artist provokes and allures viewers into engaging with the theme of dictators to examine how people are willing to consume anything that is attractively packaged or aggressively propagandized. This process leads to the acceptance and normalization of even the most troubling aspects of history and contemporary society. Merchandise items include an umbrella, cushion covers, kitchen towels, mugs, coasters, silk handkerchiefs, clutch bags, and an iPhone case.
INSTIGATIVE 5D HEADS
2004-08
Alla explored the transformation of production and consumption of contemporary portraiture through 3D digital technologies.
Scanning heads of life models using 3D medical scans ('texture maps'), Alla painted those 'maps' in oil, merged them into 3D digital portraits using software, and then further moulded them in space and time. The works were exhibited as 3D-printed models and projections accompanied by 'electro-acoustic landscapes'.
In 2007, the 'Heads' were shown at the Shunt, London, using motion-sensing technology so visitors could interact with them.
In 2006, the 'Heads featured in Alla's 'The Changing Face of Portraiture’ seminars at the NPG where the technique was shared with other artists and students. In 2010, the work was shown at the Balaklava Odyssey Media Art Festival in the Crimea.
Works:
- Animation 'Pat's Head'
- Animation ' ‘Rocking Madonna’ integrated with electro-acoustic landscape
- Animation '‘Giving Birth Out of Her Head’
- Four animations 'Four heads spin’
- Paintings of the 'texture maps'
- Prints of 3D animation stills
- a 3D print of a still
Breaking with the conventional 2D representation in art, the ‘Heads’ demonstrate:
- How the production and consumption of representation art can be transformed through digital technology
- How motion-capturing the images of the sitter affects the patterns of engagement and interaction between the artist and its subject
- How new temporal and spatial dynamics (animation and modelling) explore new possibilities for representing the artist’ creative dialogue
- How through the augmented reality technology the work reacts to viewers’ interrogations: viewer controls the animation and audio dimensions of the work by physically exploring the space and instigating motion and audio events.
Techniques explored:
- Traditional technique of oil painting
- High-speed 3D life-size motion-capture and analysis
- 3D digital animation and modelling
- Augmented reality (react-table and motion sensors)
Further explorations include:
- Matching freely painted texture maps and 3D geometry of scanned heads or figures
- Painting a number of pre-selected motion-captioned facial expressions or body movements to create a continued 'life' of a face or a figure
- 3D projection
Exhibited at:
- National Portrait Gallery, London, 2006, as part of Alla's ‘The Changing Face of Portraiture’ seminar series
- The Shunt, London, 2007, as interactive augmented reality exhibition
- Balaklava Odyssey Media Art Festival, Sevastopol, Russia, 2010
Exhibition equipment requires short-throw projection, screen, computer, infrared lamp and camera, web camera, sound system, and augmented reality equipment.
Pat's Head
Rocking Madonna
Giving Birth Out of Her Head
Heads Spin:
Animation stills
Texture maps
'I THINK I MIGHT BE JESUS' SERIES & other work
2006-20136
AFRICAN SKETCHES
2007-16
©Alla Tkachuk, 2024. All right reserved. No image or text may be reproduced without the artist’s written consent.