Natalia Babi

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  Natalia Babi with her creation "Siren-celestial Diva" (Solo exhibition, Museum of Hollywood, FL, USA)

Natalia Babi is a Hollywood, Fl. based artist whose mixed-media piece "Beauty and the Beach" was recently selected as the cover of the city government's Hollywood 360 magazine. In February 2008, this exciting new artist's solo show "Colors of Ambient" was exhibited at the historical Hollywood Cultural Arts Center Museum and Ms. Babi figured prominently in a subsequent article appearing in the The Miami Herald. BOMOND magazine ran a feature article about her in their October 2007 issue. She is currently working on two innovative new shows that will be appearing in major cities all over the world: "Windows to Their World", paintings of women who have made an impact on world culture throughout history including Nefertiti, Jeanne d'Arc, Thais of Athens, Chio Chio-San, Madame Pompadour and many other such transcendent women comprise this series; and a second show "Simple Geniuses", a series of paintings based on the philosophy of Albert Einstein. Ms. Babi is well known for creating portraits of legendary entertainers Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, and Frank Sinatra, among others.

Biography

Natalia was born in Odessa, Ukraine, where she studied art and philosophy. In addition, she was seriously involved in athletics, and became the Ukrainian women's high-jump champion. As part of the Ukrainian national team, she dreamed of participating in the Olympic Games, but destiny had a plan of its own. Natalia was noticed and invited by a modeling agency to work in New York. While working as a fashion model, she became fascinated with photography. She collaborated with photographers from all over the world including the legendary Helmut Newton, posing not only for magazines, but also for her own art projects Ms. Babi credits the beauty of Odessa as a source of much of her inspiration. "The extraordinary romantic and poetic atmosphere of the old streets, the pureness of the emerald-green sea and the golden yellow of the sandy cliffs helped give birth to my vision of a delicate spiritual world." Her art school, she writes, "...was located in a magnificent old building. It was there that I first discovered the concept of beauty. The history of art, civilization's achievements throughout the ages, the immortality of the great masters and their creations- they touched my soul and led me to experiences that seemed to defy the laws of gravity. These youthful impressions, in conjunction with the philosophy studies at the university further shaped my vision of the universe and my art."

Art

Natalia Babi's artwork is unique. She is not only the artist, but also the main character in her works, as well as their director. Each painting is a thoroughly orchestrated spectacle, using the image of the artist as a central emotive reference point. Her art is a symbiosis of the personal, the fantastic, the historical, and of the spectrum of worldwide popular culture - a window into an idealized world. Her work belongs to a category of fresh and contemporary third millennium art, a world culture of glamour and celebrity - a personal and original expression of the fantastical and mystical. All is filtered through the prism of her vivid imagination.

Her technique is also unique. To create an unusual and mesmerizing 3-D affect, she uses metallic-pearly shades, crystalline sparkle, deep colors, mixed-media, and photo images transferred to canvas, fusing photography with painting.

Philosophy

Ms. Babi relies on mystical themes in her work, as a means of understanding and interpreting reality. "Mysticism can be a metaphor for life, showing us the ordinary at an unexpected angle," she explains. Using her photographs applied onto canvas, and playing with light, colors, and brush strokes, she surrounds her real image with phantasmagorical ones. The mystical elements become intertwined with the reality so that, inadvertently, you begin believing their story. Legends and myths of antiquity, the heritage of past generations, serve as the narrative and symbolic basis for her art, reflecting a universal continuity and an underlying, deeper meaning. That same idea is captured in her portraits, where other people's real images find their place in a unique world, created specifically for them and no one else.

Whether she is exploring the mythology of the ancients or the fantastical abodes of science fiction, it is their intersection with reality that gives Ms. Babi's work its convincing feeling. "Mysticism enhances aspects of reality," says Natalia, "giving it a new eternal life, and providing the framework for each viewer to explore a deeper philosophical message."

External links

• www.NataliaBabi.com

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Name	Babi, Natalia
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