It isn't reality that is reflected with painstaking detail in this realistic-seeming work, but a reality hidden behind the objects. The invisible inner world only opens up on observation of the cover that gives the work its shape, and leaves the barrier to transcendence far behind. 

— Magdalena Koschat 

Ever since 2006, we have been encountering fabric constructs in Alina Kunitsyna’s paintings; constructs that apparently – if not obviously – contain human figures, in a crouching, seated or embryonal position. On a formal level, these figures appear to constitute a closed system with their covering. The interior – the invisible figure – articulates itself via its shell, and not just as a shape: The artist endows the shell with a number of visible expressive qualities that grant us access to what is inside. The specific combinations of fabric folds, colours, patterns and ornaments tell us something about the presence that is hidden inside and that is only hinted at; about its emotional state, its world of emotions, its “essence”.

– Lucas Gehrmann