Artist Prokopenko has exhibited around the world
Each year, (201) Magazine spotlights Bergen County artists for its annual Arts Issue. This year’s crop features artists originally from Armenia, Ukraine and Korea who create art as unique as their upbringings. Their choice of mediums might vary, but they all share the joy of creating.
When did you start creating art?
My dad is a talented watercolor artist, and I’ve been surrounded by and making art from an early age.
How did the place where you grew up affect your creative process?
There was a lot of reverence and respect for art and creative endeavors when I was growing up. I learned to look at art as life-affirming. Art-making was seen as a practice and a creative discipline. It had a certain humility about it and yet an enduring lasting quality.
What inspires your work?
Traveling always inspires me. Being in a different culture naturally expands the mind and creative thinking. I visit art museums as well as contemporary art galleries and art studios. It’s amazing how diverse the artwork is, as well as the wide variety of approaches to art making, display, thinking, and conversations around art in different parts of the world.
More and more I find inspiration everywhere — in the way light shifts throughout the day, small gestures and glances between people — it is really about noticing and paying attention.
How do you create your projects?
Usually, I have an idea that I carry in my mind for a while. I make sketches or small models for a while. I may do some research, and see works at galleries and museums. It is a gradual process. At some point, it just feels ready and I know the relative size, medium, and color palette to get started. Sometimes a piece leads me from the beginning to the end, works seem to create themselves. Others take a long time to develop.
Is there a common theme to your work?
My work ranges from glass micro mosaics and abstract oil paintings to large-scale public art murals and custom LED light installations. The common thread across all my work is color and texture. The work has a vibrancy that comes from internal ideas and from the way light is reflected off the surface. Tiny pieces of glass shimmer and sparkle, built-up oil paint textures create landscapes reminiscent of river beds and solar flares.
How has your art changed over time?
In the beginning, I focused my practice exclusively on icon writing, a spiritual meditative art form from Eastern Europe. My icons are influenced by Byzantine tradition, inspired by my travels to Italy, Greece, and Turkey. The icons take a long time to create. I worked primarily in a studio. Then I was invited to work on a public art mural — a wraparound mural on a large building in New York City. It was an amazing collaborative experience with many artists with divergent styles who got to paint together. We knew the murals would last only a few months and that ephemeral temporary quality gave the process and the paintings a special value.
Since then, I’ve painted multiple murals in New York City, as well as in Barcelona and Cartagena, and exhibited in galleries and museums. I‘ve come to appreciate both the precious quality of a jewel-like artwork created in a studio and shown in a gallery and a public art installation that has a spirit of openhanded generosity about it.
Do you have a favorite piece?
My favorites change. Sometimes it is whichever piece I am working on at the moment. Sometimes it is something I saw at a gallery exhibition or a friend’s studio. It becomes like a visual friend. I reflect on it and it informs how I view
other work, and how I make my own work. Usually, there is something to learn, to explore about art-making as a process and as an identity.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists?
Ask questions, learn techniques, try different mediums, make friends with artists, attend openings, and go to the art shows, museums, and galleries. Trust your experience and follow your heart, permit yourself to make mistakes, and take time to learn, to grow, to explore what it means for you to be an artist. And make art daily — even if it’s only a small sketch — making art is a practice.
What’s next?
My work is currently on view at Paul Larsen Gallery in Saddle River, Opus One in Ridgewood, and St. Paul the Apostle at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. I am working on a new series that combines glass with ceramics.
Joram is the art director for the magazines of North Jersey Media Group — including (201), Montclair and Wayne. He currently writes three monthly columns for (201) and his work appears regularly on NorthJersey.com and in The Record. He also manages the social media accounts for all three magazines.