2008-08-06 until 2008-08-30
Groundfloor Gallery
Balmain,Australia
Groundfloor Gallery features Balmain local resident artist, Ilya Volykhine's latest exhbition of figurative oils in, All That's Left & Then Some on now through the 30th of August 2008. In All That's Left & Then Some, Volykhine uses a combination of oils and paper (archival copies of personal letters from his mother still in Russiain Cyrillic) on panel. The artistʼs versatile use of different expressive media is directly connected to the kaleidoscope of cultures that coexist in his personality: born in the Soviet Union, he has led a mobile existence in Russia, USA and most recently Australia; between the polymorphic vitality of Russian culture and the New York “melting pot” he delves into the idea of the accidental nature of the world as creative force, maintaining a detachment with respect to subjects and materials that allows him to freely explore and express his experience of the world in painting.
His works often evoke his own physical presence, his body seen as an instrument through which a relationship of osmosis is established between the creative Self and the rest of the world: the artist is his own body through which, in a constant interplay of inner and outer, physical and psychic, relations are created among different cultures, histories, people and thoughts. They are characterised by luminous vivid colours, or streaky browns set over bright backgrounds and the artistsʼ unique iconography infused with both memories of Russian literature and popular culture.
The exhibition title All That's Left & Then Some refers to the his constant use and re-use of historically significant and also mundane iconography and highlights many of the works, including portraits and the human figure, rural landscapes and urban cityscapes, and conceptual approaches to the figurative – that speak to the continuing power of painting.
www.groundfloorgallery.com
No comments:
Post a Comment