Igor Gusev | New Works | 27 September - 22 October 2017

Voloshyn Gallery presents the exhibition of the artist Igor Gusev "NEW WORKS". The exposition will include new painting works and also, recently created objects.

From the first glance the new paintings of Gusev may resemble to be classical fine art. But in a moment you realize you’ve been misled by masterful technique. Idyllic scenes filled with peace and irony here and there are ruined by colourful stripes, noise and digital errors.

“In the paintings which are based on a figure in an interior or exterior setting, the figure or figures have their “abstract” extensions, stripes which spread out from a nearly organic “suture” with the mimetic fragment of the figure to the very edge of the painting. These stripes have an appropriate colour structure which is in accordance with the painted base from which they start. This results in painted stripes which clearly resemble the stripes which appear on a screen during any interference or malfunction in the broadcasting of a digital image. Naturally, this reveals the reasons for the formal merging of two different languages, the mimetic and the abstract, and the internal circulation of meaning between the two types of visual representation of the world of objects: one based on the recognition of objects by analogy and another which rests on simulating some form of the numerical structuralisation of the image of that same object. It is worthwhile to draw an art-historical comparison here”, says Petar Ćuković, an art historian and a curator. He states as well that these images are the final result of the whole ritual, besides, it indicates the magic of art when it faces the inexpressible and the incogitable, the faith of Igor Gusev in undeniable power of fine art as the only aesthetic experience: “From the movement of the hand which presses the “stop” command in front of a screen on which a film is running and then stores the freeze-frame in files, to the moment when the stored freeze-frames are used as the basis for a painting on canvas, including the obligatory metamorphoses”.

Gusev has been appealing to his distinctive manner for the last five-seven years. However, as a starting point of it according to the opinion of some art critics is considered the work “A Car and a Cat” painted in 1998. It depicts a fluorescent skeleton of a cat running from under a specifically longish car. Glitch effects were inevitable part of video art prevailing in the art of the late 90s.

At the time Gusev proved himself as a video artist and the author of the numerous paradoxy installations. But what is the author depicting in fact? Is it a bar code or the visualization of string theory? What’s behind all of this? Insanity of a genius or conscious pragmatism?

Igor Gusev was born in Odesa. He graduated from Odesa Art College named after M. Grekov. He is a Ukrainian artist, a poet, the author of performances, films, objects and installations, a participant and an organizer of the numerous art actions, the leader of the movement “Art Raiders”, the founder of the underground gallery “Norma”. Regular participant of the major exhibition projects, such as “Restart”, “Space Odyssey”, “Independant”, “20 Years of Presence”, special project of The First Kyiv International Biennale of Contemporary Art ARSENALE 2012 “Double Game”, Odesa Biennale of Contemporary Art, “The Days of Ukraine in Great Britain”.

Igor Gusev has been participating in exhibitions since early 90s and is the representative of the new wave of the Ukrainian contemporary art. In 2013 was rated in the Top 25 of the Most Successful Artists of Ukraine according to the art-website www.hudruk.org. At the moment he lives and works in Odesa.

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Igor Gusev | New Works

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