Sasha wurde in einer Künstlerfamilie in Moskau geboren und hatte ihr Kunststudium im Jahre 2005 mit Auszeichnung abgeschlossen. Sie hat an dem weltbekannten Projekt „Loving Vincent“ teilgenommen, in dem die Biografie des Künstlers Szene für Szene gemalt und animiert wurde. Arbeiten von Sasha befinden sich in vielen privaten Sammlungen der Welt. Zurzeit lebt sie zwischen Moskau und Barcelona. Das tägliche Leben Barcelonas diente als Inspiration für die Arbeiten ihrer Ausstellung.

To begin with a question: what is realism? What it is not is the mimetic copying of appearances. Faced with ‘reality’ – if we can ignore the problematics posed by phenomenology – the artist is forced to select, edit and discard in the process of translating the ‘thing in itself’ into a unique language appropriate to the brush and to the scale of the support. The choice of medium, of colours and tones, the framing of the composition, the intricate balance of the negative and positive forms of figure and ground, the signature style of the brushwork… everything is subjective. Which is not to say that it lays bare the personality of the artist, but it does stamp the work with a sense of individual vision.
For much of the past century, realism fell victim to political appropriation: Socialist Realism came to equal repression, while CIA-funded exhibitions of Abstract Expressionism carried the flag of American liberalism around Western Europe (don’t believe post-truth is a recent invention!). Today, the playing field is more level. We no longer have an avant-garde; even the expression ‘cutting edge’ has begun to sound passé. Realist representation in the traditional medium of oil paint on canvas coexists alongside performance, installation, video et al with an equal claim for commenting upon the world in which we live. And precisely because of its subjectivity (so much distrusted in post-modern discourse), it retains the potential for personal disclosure.
In series entitled "Egoism" Sokolova shows us how often people are concerned with their own well being without noticing what is happening around them.  They think that nothing will affect them, nothing will disturb them, if they just ignore it and figuratively "close the door".
To convey the idea she explores contrasts and opposites visually; tranquillity and the uncontrollable forces of nature; permanence and transience; drama and peacefulness, and represents them in colour (familiar and thrilling for the characters) and monochrome (everything that they subconsciously retreat from).
What we find in Sokolova’s series “Conversations” is often a solipsistic vision, an urban panorama in which the rituals of the everyday are performed regardless of the public context: street games, bars and social interaction in which the players appear unaware of being observed and oblivious to the proximity of those around them.
Sasha Sokolova captures this corner of everyday reality with a highly trained eye and dexterity of execution that lays bare what might otherwise pass us by, and does so with an almost whimsical empathy and understanding. As with all her works, she does our looking for us. And, just perhaps, encourages us to take closer note the next time we encounter a dog walker on the street.
text: Keith Patrick