We present the project of the exposition of the works of the legendary representative of St. Petersburg neo-academism Bella Matveeva called "Wave Genetics", prepared by our gallery for the international contemporary art fair COSMOSCOW 2022.
Выставка «Я люблю этот город...»
From November 10 to December 25, 2007, Tatyana Nikitina’s Art Holding hosted an exhibition of works by the remarkable experimental artist Andrei Chezhin.
Photographs by Andrei Chezhin are skillful and fascinatingly attractive. The space in them acquires velvet materiality, and real objects, on the contrary: either appear, disappear, or begin to soar in unimaginable dances.
Maria Sheinina "I love this city ..."
A man in the city lives, works, walks, overcomes and equips his space, his environment. Each city is like a city, neighboring, distant, beloved, hated. Streets, houses, squares, hospitals, schools, banks, factories - architectural structures. Each city is individual and not similar to any other in the world - architectural, stylistic, landscape details vary, but most of all - the spirit of the city. The elusive and attractive-desired-recognizable - the spirit of the city is always incomparable with anything, it is one, only, individual.
The relations of man and the city are more than once described, captured, philosophically meaningful, but still remain important for writers, artists, photographers, filmmakers, poets, composers, researchers.
The cities of Andrei Chezhin are unique and recognizable. In his photographs, the spirit of the city, merging with the physiognomy of the city, acquires a distinct character. The prescription, the establishment, the nearly verified rule of fixing urban space is read by the viewer in the constructions of the photographer.
Photos by A. Chezhin are always monochrome. The more interesting is the experience of introducing color into the photographic space. And the photograph remains only an echo - a form that turns out to be just a sign, since the artist uses it only as a grid in silk-screen printing. It is the color and the possibilities of engraving interference in the plane, including the addition of color masses, that provide the artist with important textures, bring texture, touch, tactility not to the image, but to the surface of the work, shifting the old accents into his work. The birth of new technology gives rise to new opportunities. New opportunities give rise to new realities. New realities - new art worlds. Before our eyes, the real world in the fixation of the photographer is undergoing its own transformation, becoming an artifact, but the echo of this transformation is almost calming down in the artist's silk-screen prints - filling with new meanings takes place, the reality is different.
The polyphony of meanings is musical, the monochrome of the photo is interrupted by polyphony, the work of visual art becomes musical. We can almost hear the majority of Esher's symphonies, the important organism of the Cathedrals, the “Arches” (doors), and the piano etude of Transparent Dreams. In these works the city loses its semantic load, labyrinths and spatial breaks, creases, breaks lose fatality. Form and mass, rhythm and mobility, general movement, temporal perception, finiteness of performance - qualities inherent in these works of the artist Andrei Chezhin - qualities inherent in a musical work. Paradoxes of conquering the territory of black and white photographic space with color.
Maria Scheinina
member of the International Association of Art Critics
Exhibition catalog: http://artholdingtn.ru/f/chezhin.pdf
