With new works conceived as an organization of almost abstract volumes simplified from the endless complexity of the human anatomy, we can appreciate how widely varied the formal and expressive results can be where Anya Farion experiments with non-canonical proportions. Further exploring stone carving techniques with hand tools and a pneumatic hammer, the sculptor delights the viewer with largely unbroken surfaces, some more abstract than others, but all reflecting an instinctive feeling for the dignity of the human figure. The largely continuous surfaces of the smoothly modeled masses of stone take light evenly and quietly. In the realm of purity and simplicity, the figures carry their own meaning, referring to nothing outside of themselves - the form alone is sufficient to the artist’s purpose.


Excerpt from the Press Release to the exhibit Myth Form Spirit, New York City by Andrew Horodysky




Fulbright Association published story, September 21, 2021:


https://fulbright.org/2021/09/21/thank-you-for-my-italian-year-anya-farion-italy-1988/




2021 Fulbright Conference Virtual Art Exhibit Panel, October 21, 2021:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0LCXBvtkMg&list=PLlbNJZSvRlAoWuF4XbChBYfiHbYPO9t_J&index=7



Celebrating the Centennial of Women's Right to Vote in the US: featuring artist ANYA FARION (b. May 17, 1954)
Anya Farion (b. May 17, 1954)


Sculptor born in New York to Ukrainian immigrant parents who had arrived in the U.S. in 1951. Lived in a Brooklyn tenement before moving to Cleveland in 1956. Received a BFA from Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York (1975). Returned to New York in 1976. Also studied stone carving techniques at the Instituto Statale d'Arte in Massa-Carrara, Italy. In 1988, was awarded a Fulbright Grant to sculpt in Pietrasanta, Italy, a center of marble and granite masonry, which attracts artists from around the world. Her grant was extended with a Child's Fund Scholarship based in Florence, Italy. During the summer of 1994, represented the U.S. at the Invitational International Sculpture Symposium in Kyiv, Ukraine, where her work was awarded second prize. Carves her works from various Italian and Portuguese marbles using only hand tools and pneumatic hammers. Her figurative sculptures provide the viewer with an intuitive and subtle exploration of anatomical elements of the human figure. Has exhibited extensively in the United States, Canada, Italy, and Ukraine. Her work is part of public and private collections in the US, Canada, Germany, and Ukraine, including the National Art Museum in Kyiv and The Ukrainian Museum in New York.


Anya Farion's sculptures have been shown in several of The Ukrainian Museum's exhibitions: "Fine Art / Folk Art: A Dialogue" (2009), "A Collection Revisited" (2014), "The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists 1908–2015" (see catalogue information below).


https://www.facebook.com/UkrainianMuseum/posts/10157424715216723




Ms. Farion plays the role of magician in her sculptures. From a wedge of severed alabaster or steatite, she envisions and materializes the elegant profile of a goddess or idealized nudes. The impact of Ms. Farion’s magic trick comes about in the black-and-white starkness of the emerging form, and the elegant shapes that come forth are commensurate and coincident with the refinement and sophistication of the stone. The sharp and ragged edges of the unprimed stone are literally transformed into smooth-edged, rounded contours.


Among the works displayed, “Emerging Figure”, rendered in white alabaster, serves as testimony to how carefully the stone was studied and how sensitively it was felt by the artist, who, in emphasizing the veins of the stone, adds life to the stretched, soft skin of the figure. The work gives off the effect of a body which is throbbing with life.


Excerpt from Ukrainian Weekly: Art Review Atmosphere of Artistic Universality marks four-woman exhibit in Ohio by Prof. Myroslava M. Mudrak, Department of History of Art, Ohio State University


All images copyright Anya Farion

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