Her newest exhibition, Inside Me, at the Gillian Jason Gallery is set against a white backdrop,where she shows a body of work that, in reflecting her own experience, reflects the experience of every one of us. Her intertwining, disfigured, contorted figures embody harmonising energies of vulnerability and strength. The exhibition allows us to follow Zamanova inside herself, and to explore imperfection and strength through her muses.

Inside Me provocatively explores themes of vulnerability and beauty through the artist’s exploration of the self. Alina Zamanova shows how she has reflected on her relationship with herself and her own imperfections by reflecting on her relationship with others. By admitting that the way she views herself is undeniably intertwined with her view of others, she creates a graceful and beautiful body of work that tangles and distorts perception. Throughout, her subjects show an intense focus on the other, by focusing their glare on us. As the artist says, it is a “sustained exploration into my own body and mind through the transformation of my memories and emotions onto the canvas”.

It is all about juxtaposing ideas that result from self-reflection: vulnerability and strength; ugliness and beauty. The exhibition acts as a mirror for the body and the self, all the pieces glistening reflectively. The paintings’ subject is not just the self however, but also others, women who Zamanova has been inspired by and fallen in love with. Through her compositions, she makes “women who transcend these prescribed behaviours to be confident in their skin, confident in their message, and confident in the work they create, all while striving to embrace the human feeling of vulnerability." In Dance, for example, the figures gracefully uphold each other, guiding and reflecting each other’s movements. She uses her passion for dance to recreate the relationship she has with other women, drawing energy from their strength.

It is all about juxtaposing ideas that result from self-reflection: vulnerability and strength; ugliness and beauty. The exhibition acts as a mirror for the body and the self, all the pieces glistening reflectively. The paintings’ subject is not just the self however, but also others, women who Zamanova has been inspired by and fallen in love with. Through her compositions, she makes “women who transcend these prescribed behaviours to be confident in their skin, confident in their message, and confident in the work they create, all while striving to embrace the human feeling of vulnerability." In Dance, for example, the figures gracefully uphold each other, guiding and reflecting each other’s movements. She uses her passion for dance to recreate the relationship she has with other women, drawing energy from their strength.

The works that feature in the exhibition are uniquely sculpture-like in comparison to her main body of work. Partly, this is due to Michaela Stark’s influence. Zamanova was struck by Michaela’s lingerie designs, particularly the way they use fabric in order to sculpt the body through contortion. The interrelationship between her work and Stark’s is demonstrated by two paintings which bookmark Zamanova’s clay sculptures in the final room of the exhibition. The paintings are life drawings of Stark posed in two of her lingerie creations. Stark’s role as her muse is powerful, her artistry can be seen throughout the exhibition. Just as the two figures intertwine, contort, reflect, and inspire each other, so Zamanova and Stark intertwine to form the entire gallery of works.

Of course, Zamanova is well acquainted with the role of the human body within art and fashion, and how art and fashion are inseparable, particularly when it comes to the bodily form. She tells us, “for as long as I am fascinated by the portrayal and juxtaposition of beauty and ugliness in the media and wider society, art and fashion remain both inseparable and intertwined in my work." She worked with legendary designer, Alexander McQueen during her undergraduate years, putting her in the prime position to witness the interaction between art and fashion. McQueen’s designs showed how the body moves, how the garment affects the body, and how fashion has the ability to subvert norms. Utilising this experience working with McQueen, Zamanova puts these aspects of subversion and movement to use in her paintings through expressive brushstrokes. The long strokes render seemingly tangled, yet thin and flowing pieces of fabric that tie the figures and their body parts together, further adding to their distortion and disfigurement.

The exhibition is particularly illuminating of Zamanova’s artistry in that it features her triptychs in their entirety. In one triptych, her work, Dark Side, is joined by its counterparts Comfort Zone and Fate. Where the arm in Comfort Zone trails off into the vacant space between the canvases, Fate seemingly picks it up and holds it, conjoining the triptych in a way that is symbolic of the exhibition’s themes such as strength and love. These paintings rely on each other to transcend spatial boundaries, creating an imagined, and projected, relationship between them. The third counterpart, Dark Side, shows, by comparison, its wholeness. Where Comfort Zone and Fate’s completeness is projected by the viewer, Dark Side reveals the fullness of its beauty. Like its name, it shows the darker side of any beauty, in that it shows the wholeness of a body without selective mutilation, cropping, or editing.

The final room of the exhibition features works in progress, clay sculptures that she either made with an error or did not finish. Displayed as part of the exhibition, however, they show that any work’s incompleteness is subjective to the artist. Bringing together the exhibition, Zamanova shows her sculptural implications with regard to her paintings. The sculptures bring forth a sense of vulnerability and imperfection that is central to the overall nature of the exhibition. This room gracefully communicates the overall message of the exhibition: self-reflection is a constant work in progress.

After lockdown ends in England on 12th December, the Gillian Jason Gallery is hoping to make private viewings available for booking.