There is a haunting if deceptive modernity in the notion, so often celebrated by baroque poets and thinkers, that arteries and the branches of trees, the dancing motion of the microcosm and the solemn measures of the spheres, the markings on the back of the tortoise and the veined patterns on rocks, are all ciphers.
George Steiner, Lifelines
At the heart of this exhibition lies a fascination with the hidden patterns that shape our world. Artist Nadia Ryzhakova begins each painting in a state of chaos: colour poured in liquid streams, tilting and flowing under the influence of gravity, air, and chance. The paint finds its own path, spreading like rivers through valleys, wind carving clouds, or moss weaving across bark.
These unfolding patterns recall the ancient Chinese concept of Li — the quiet rhythm of veins in a leaf, ripples across water, crystals in stone. Beauty that forms without force, order revealed through chaos.
In Nadia’s practice, the fluid moment is never entirely hers to control. Wet paint holds infinite possibilities, like a quantum system before collapse. As it dries, those possibilities resolve into one unrepeatable outcome. From this frozen surface, she steps in — not to impose order, but to translate it. Within the shapes she discovers stories, often populated by children: symbols of curiosity, openness, and the capacity to see wonder where others see only accident.
Each canvas becomes a journey from chaos into harmony, from abstraction into narrative. The works invite us to witness nature’s forces at play, to glimpse the hidden order behind surface disorder, and to recognise in these patterns something both universal and deeply human.
Nadia holds a MA in Monumental Arts from the Stroganov Academy of Arts in Moscow. She moved to the UK in 2010 where she was exploring digital iPad drawings. Her work gained quick recognition, resulting in a publication in the London Evening Standard, an interview with Sky News, and an invitation from the Victoria & Albert Museum to collaborate on an iPad drawing class. Despite her digital success, in 2016 Nadia returned to painting on canvas and in the same year she won John Palmer Painting Competition award and was featured in the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard. Most recently, in 2024, she completed the Turps Correspondence course at Turps Banana Art School. Nadia currently resides in Stonehouse, painting in her studio at the Painswick Centre.
