A City in Layers (2026) Original Mixed-media Painting by Aleksandra Mitkalova

This painting is part of an ongoing series exploring the city in which I live. For this body of work, I deliberately seek out unconventional vantage points - rooftops, elevated spaces, and places that allow me to step outside the familiar routes of everyday life and encounter the city from a different perspective.

I am interested not simply in depicting the city, but in exploring how our perception of a place changes when we change the position from which we look at it. By observing the familiar from above and from unexpected angles, I begin to see the city anew. Its architecture, proportions, rhythms, and relationships shift, and what once seemed ordinary can suddenly appear unfamiliar and full of possibility.

The rooftop becomes an important element within this process. It is both a physical viewpoint and a conceptual space between immersion and distance. From there, I can remain within the city while simultaneously stepping outside my habitual way of experiencing it. The city becomes less a fixed environment and more an open field of observation, discovery, and interpretation.

Through this series, I explore the possibility of rediscovering the familiar. I am interested in that moment when a place we believe we know becomes strange again, awakening a sense of wonder and curiosity. Changing the point of view becomes more than a physical act; it becomes a way of thinking—a way of remaining open to uncertainty and to the possibility that there is always another way of seeing.

Details:

• Mixed-media painting on Paper
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 30 x 42cm (unframed) / 30 x 42cm (actual image size)
• Signed on the back
• Style: Graphic, illustrative and typographic
• Subject: Architecture and cityscapes