Indepth Arts News:
"ILYA VOLYKHINE: All That's Left and Then Some"
2008-08-06 until 2008-08-30
Groundfloor Gallery
Balmain, NS,
AU 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.
Ilya Volykhine's All That's Left & Then Some exhibition opened on Wednesday the 6
of August, with drinks with the artist to be held on the second Saturday of the exhibition,
16 August from 3-5pm, and is on view now through to the 30th of August.
Volykhine was born in 1967 in Ust Labinsk, Russia and currently lives and practices out of Sydney.
He has held six solo exhibitions in Sydney since 2000. He has exhibited at the Maui Arts &
Cultural Center, Hawaii, USA and with the YAVA Gallery in New York City. He has gained a
reputation in Australia since he exhibited as a finalist in the 2003 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery
of New South Wales and also in the 2004 53rd Blake Prize for Religious Art at Sir Hermann Black
Gallery. Most recently his work featured in the 2006 Mosman Prize exhibition and the 2007
Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award exhibition that toured nationwide. He also recently become a citizen of Australia.
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