ARTIST STATEMENT
Closely collaborated with the Zverev Center of Contemporary Art, and had three exhibitions there - one solo and
two group ones. Also my personal Art Shows took place at the Artist House on Vavilova Street, and at J.J.Davis Gallery.
MY OUTLOOK
Most often I paint, but sometimes I do graphic drawing. My figurative creations represent a poetry of Space, and I see it as a metaphor of a mystic contact between myself and Art creation. Usually I use monochrome chiaroscuro and create paintings that as if mimic photography. My artistic method is a kind of a portal, where mysterious and Divine forces can symbolically resurrect the Departed, to restore what is gone with time, to turn time back.
Very consciously I break the logic of the art media, and choose painting - but boundaries are shifting. So, in the center I put almost a photograph that is a chance, spied moment. The subject of my works is a starting instance of the Eternal and hazardous Return - actually, it is the myth of the Eternal Return. It is a story of the endless ascent to where you came from, and where you belong in time, the ascent from death to life, and from visual to essence. So, in my artwork there is a theme of false memories, and I try to find the past in the present, to confuse trails, to mix the memories with senses, to juxtapose the worlds of my invention - as opposed to everyday life.
MY MATERIALS
Canvas, oil, paper, cardboard, liquid ink, chalk, charcoal, oil and dry pastel, crayons.
MY THEME
In my paintings I concentrate on memory - bipolar "self" of photograph, vestiges of what did exist, and what didn't, oblivion, false memories, phantom pains, colonization of culture, contemporary transformation of images and human values. I acquire and change the reality by making it my own.
I am thrilled by the Time in its philosophical dimension like an endless moving, eternity image, and the dramatic point in the post-historical format, its mythology. I am also deep into the national identity - meaning the Russian fairy tales, legends, general folklore, mystery cults, underground and unofficial Russian culture. Of course, the fluctuations of human nature sometimes lead to unexpected results. I understand that human "self" cannot stand alone. Every human being has angels and demons inside. In the certain moments of History appears some reason that conquers the Time and becomes a break through Fate with unlimited powers to affect countries and generations.
Thus I am interested in Russia as a historical object, as well as a future cultural project.
I often think that we are just images of an existing landscape, the landscape that affects the development of individual and collective human soul.
INFLUENCES
I feel akin with some artists and art trends. Daniel Richart's work with light is close to me - that's how he plays it
- and we both put our images in a new context of fantastic, and timeless, as if we have been seeing similar dreams.
Historically speaking, I would compare my visuals, maybe, with Marc Shagal, and Bilibin. And, of course, I was most influenced by Moscow Mystic School, with its deformation of everyday life. At this point of my career I would like to adhere to the school of Piatnitsky, Sveshnikov, Shinkarev, Kovenatsky, and others. |
