In her solo exhibition The Ultimate Hero, Swetlana Gerner’s paintings open our ears to the quiet humming of ideological turbulence - a humming that turns into a scream once it goes unheard. Drawing from a well of personal experience as a Jewish woman growing up in the Soviet Union, as well as her experience of relocating to Western Europe as a young artist, Gerner makes strong references to questionable philosophies within the patriarchal structures of both the Eastern and Western worlds.
 
The overarching theme of humanity’s ongoing yet questionable search for the ultimate hero and saviour has become the leitmotif of the exhibition. It is a pursuit as ancient as civilisation itself: from Greek Gods, to Jesus, to modern and contemporary political revolutionaries - people need a hero to personify their deepest yearnings for an enlightened life and a blessed afterlife. Yet this journey can be a deceptive and ultimately blinding voyage: people are quick to idealise and sanctify people without much question once they fit their mold of a hero. Shouldn’t this be one of the most wise choices we as a society can make? And must this be a choice at all? Why do we need heroes and how can we reflect upon past choices of the ultimate saviour that were undoubtedly deceitful and misguided?
 
The conditions of artistic production of Gerner’s works show a dynamic and intuitive approach to painting. Many of her works are produced in one creative outburst, in a happening reminiscent of the flowing, uninterrupted practice of calligraphy. This might be the contributing factor to the raw, untouched nature of her work.
 
The contemporary figuration in the artist’s oeuvre is layered with historical, art-historical, and mythical references. One, for instance, shows a familiar sight of a boisterous bacchanal, yet the figures and detailing seem eerily modern. In another work, a view of a turquoise lake scenery with two white swans is shown, with an initially romantic and dreamy atmosphere rising from the canvas. On second glance however, a troupe of ballerinas can be seen mid-performance. What could seem as an idyllic, dream-like spectacle on the surface, turns into a nightmarish sight when remembering in what moments in time Soviet television would broadcast Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake to the public.
 
Swetlana Gerner plays with bright figuration, nostalgia, and an enigmatic combination of symbolism and colour, that altogether channel a sense of unease.
The works in The Ultimate Hero become a vessel for contemplation and introspection of not just our personal, but also our collective belief systems.