Exhibitions
Vyacheslav Mikhailov: Painting & Drawing
28 May - 29 June, 2013
Erarta Galleries London is delighted to present Painting & Drawing a new exhibition by Vyacheslav Mikhailov. One of St. Petersburg's best-known artists, Mikhailov's paintings have been exhibited in the Hermitage and are in the permanent collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Zimmereli Collection in New York, and the Shanghai Museum of International Art, but what of his drawings? Quickly drawn and full of energy, Mikhailov's drawings are at once in contrast to his concentrated and still paintings and an interesting counterpoint to their considered severity. Shown hanging to allow close comparison, we are offered a interesting insight int Mikhailov's modes of working and how he paints and draws.
Yulia Kosulnikova: I'm not Baba Yaga
12 April - 23 May, 2013
Erarta Galleries London presents I'm not Baba Yaga, a new series of paintings by Yulia Kosulnikova. Asserting her identity in the negative, the large-scale paintings that make up the exhibition imply that her initial assertion is closely followed by "but I'm not that either," for Kosulnikova is known for ironic contrasts. Often likened to a witch, Baba Yaga is actually a much more complex character, who may help or hinder those who seek her out. It is undoubtedly her ambiguity that appeals to Kosulnikova.
David Plaksin: Structure
1 March - 6 April 2013
Erarta Galleries is pleased to present Structure by David Plaksin. A celebrated book designer and illustrator, Plaksin has a strong interest in typography and a need for meaning within his chosen imagery. Structure presents a new body of graphic work that melds his long-standing interest in graphic design with his artistic sensitivity to visual objects with strong associative potential.
Vladimir Dukhovlinov: Speranza
18 January - 23 February 2013
Erarta Galleries London is delighted to present Speranza a new exhibition by Vladimir Dukhovlinov.
During his long and successful career, Dukhovlinov has been able to create and develop a new positive image of the world, one that proposes a secretive positive and optimistic symbolism that attempts to explain the spiritual meaning of our frivolous lives. This is not a new approach as many others before Dukhovlinov have tired through their art and their thinking to unscramble the secrets of the soul. Goethe, for example, follows the same desire to understand behind the material appearance: "Nothing's inside, nothing's outside. For the inside is the outside." In affirming this, Goethe simply quoted a principle of the Kabala.
Vladimir Dukhovlinov Press Release
Gennady Zubkov: Prismatic
21 November - 12 January 2013
Erarta Galleries London is delighted to present Prismatic by Gennady Zubkov. A protagonist of the Non-conformist generation and a leader of the Sterligov group, Zubkov has a unique artistic vision, one that fuses the theory of the Russian Avente - Garde and Suprematism with contemporary concers of transcience and ephemerality.
Andrey Gorbunov: Revision DNA
9 October - 17 November 2012
Marking a break with his earlier painterly approach to image making, Gorbunov’s new work questions the relationship that links art and science and asks if it is possible to assume that we are dealing with two opposing factors? On the one hand, the positive and confirmed structure of scientific knowledge, and, on the other, the intuitive nature of art produced by human irrationality. Moreover, is it really correct to judge a work of art merely as a product of human irrationality, a product of illogical emotions, free from all rules and aesthetic canons?
Annouchka Brochet: Vulnerable
7 September - 3 October 2012
Could the new image of a strong woman be one who is able to put forward her frailty, her intuitve intelligence and her natural understanding as a value for humanity with requiring protection? Annouchka Brochet's new series of paintings examines the role of women in contemporary society with a focus on the power of vulnerability.
Anouchka Brochet Press Release
The Fourth Height +Urs Bigler: The Crown
20 June - 31 August, 2012
Erarta Galleries London with The Fourth Height + Urs Bigler bring The Crown to Diamond Jubilee London. The photographic exhibition is “the multicultural trash-dreaming” vision of The Fourth Height, a troika of colourful Russian artists (Dina Kim, Katya Kameneva, and Gala Smirnskaya) working in collaboration with renowned Swiss photographer Urs Bigler. Following the successful exhibition at Volta New York last year, Russia comes to London’s summer celebrations in the shape of an extraordinary, much talked about exhibition.
Danja Akulin: Penumbra
15 June - 14 July, 2012
The word penumbra is often rendered "half-light," but the Latin origin paene umbra literally means "almost shadow." In between the shadow and the light there is a zone through which we many see what is in the penumbra, but we see it with this darkened hue, and it is problematic to say whether it is illuminated or not.
In his work Danja Akulin is able to cast light into what is but a partially illuminated landscape. In the way he masters the light, he is able to visually translate emotions and thoughts within the duality of darkness and brightness.
Ilya Gaponov: Undiscerning Appetites
4 May - 9 June, 2012
Erarta Galleries is delighted to present Undiscerning Appetites, a new exhibition by Ilya Gaponov. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with an introduction by Evgeny Lebedev, one of Gaponov's foremost collectors.
Undiscerning Appetities is inspired by the momento mori style of still life emphasizing the brevity of all earthly delights. The artist has adopted as the main plot for his new exhibition a passage from the Book of Revelations (2:18-2:29), in which God sends a message to the church at Thyatira (modern-day Akhisar in Turkey). The message speaks of the wife of King Ahab, Jezebel, whose name is associated with the Apocalypse, with heresy and with depravity.
Past, Present & Future
12 April - 28 April, 2012
Past, Present & Future Press Release
Aleksey Chizhov: Les Paradis Naturels
24 February - 5 April, 2012
Les Paradis Naturels is a new collection of paintings by Aleksey Chizhov. One of Russia's finest emerging artists, Chizhov's paintings present a hallucinatory world encouraging growth and emotional development. In "Paradis artificiels" (Artificial Paradices) Charles Baudelaire writes about opium as the wrong way through which humankind can achieve enlightenment; a taste for the infinite satisfied by the creation of a pharmaceutical heaven. Chizhov, however, uses the symbol of poppies as a metaphorical escamotage to encapsulate the struggle evident in our society.
Denis Patrakeev: 361o
13 January - 18 February, 2012
Erarta Galleries London is please to present an exhbition of new paintings by Denis Patrakeev. One of the youngest rising stars of the Russian art scene, Patrakeev makes bleak, powerfully unsettling work that addresses the operations of memory, and the tramas of identity and belonging within contemporary society.
Vladimir Ovchinnikov: New and Recent Work
28 November - 7 January 2012
One of the most significant artists to emerge from St. Petersburg during the Soviet era, Vladimir Ovchinnikov is known for his paintings that blur the bourndaries between realism and surrearlism, fusing together contemporary Russian subject matter with magical, fantastic elements, often derived from myth and religion. His distinctively round, heavy-bodied, yellow-skinned figures have a primeval, statuesque quality, as if stemming from ancient monuments or religious icons -- and yet at the same time his works also allude to social and political conditions, vividly satraizing contempoary mores, and puncturing the hypocrisy and spiritual bankruptcy at the heart of everyday life.
Rinat Voligamsi: The Conditions of Winter
12 October - 19 November, 2011
Erarta Galleries London is proud to present a selection of recent paintings by Rinat Voligamsi. Entitled The Conditions of Winter, the works are based on found photographs depicting scenes of Russian military life in harsh winter settings. While Voligamsi retains the monochrome colours and square format of early photography, the content of each image is given a characteristically uncanny, surreal twist – an alteration that is sometimes comical, often darkly beautiful, always oddly unsettling.
Peter and the Wolf: Contemporary Painting from St. Petersburg
14 September - 08 October, 2011
Erarta Galleries are proud to present Peter and the Wolf: Contemporary Painting from St. Petersburg, the inaugeral exhibition at their new venue in the heart of London. The exhibition features work by two different gernerations of artists from St. Petersburg -- the city where the Erarta Museum and original gallery is based. While art stemming from Moscow has received much exposure in recent years, international audience are less familiar with art from St. Petersburg adn the rest of Russia, and it is this imbalance that Erarta Galleries was established to address.
Peter and the Wolf Press Release