Evgeny Rodionov. miracle forest Automatic translate

An unusual project “Evgeny Rodionov. Miraculous". After all, it is on New Year’s Eve that some miracles always happen that we are all waiting for, even if it is all sorts of unheard of things, as, for example, with the Vologda artist Yevgeny Rodionov.

The roots of his art are easy to find in Russian folk pictures, and in medieval miniatures, and in comics, and in posters, and someone will find them even in a biology textbook. Behind the outer, more understandable side, there are much more complex and even mysterious content and meaning.

The direction in which the artist works, he himself defines as "Rodionovskaya painting" and calls himself "an artist-storyteller." The ARTSTORY gallery likes to tell completely different stories. And here the works themselves are stories, parables, and sometimes quite life anecdotes. Only here is the reality of everything that happens in the stories told, rather from a “parallel”, not our reality. “The habitat of the characters in my paintings is a mysterious wonder forest, I also call it a reserve. Here, the rules and laws familiar to man work in some special way, obeying their own great, I am sure, goals. I try to get into everything and figure it out, little happens, but at the same time I am extremely happy and happy every time I find myself in this wonderful place!

Each of E. Rodionov’s works (more than 100 works will be presented in total), despite the seeming naivety and positive, has a kind of "wrong side", personifying the artist’s inner world and experiences.

Using techniques typical of naive art, Evgeny Rodionov depicts an alternative mythological reality. The fabulous everyday life of Rodionov’s plots is closest to popular prints: in a decorative manner, the artist describes life stories that happen to his heroines-grandmothers in the "mysterious reserve".

The traditional lubok, which takes its origins in folk art, which is characterized by simplicity of technique and visual means, is transformed in the artist’s work into a kind of "pseudo-lubok", as the artist calls it. He settles the characters of his paintings in a mysterious reserve, where everything is subject to its own special rules. “Like any reserve, this place is closed to the public, and the course of life flows in it as it should, that is, in its most natural way,” the author himself describes it. The inhabitants of this bizarre place contrast sharply with the space around them: the viewer is greeted by the heroines - “grandmothers”, in colorful scarves, dresses with polka dots, at first glance, simple-minded and naive, but each with her own special character and life baggage.

Rodionov comes up with “talking” titles for his works, and with this he continues his story. Here are examples of what visitors will see: “We fed the fish with porridge and watered it with milk”, “Show me, bird, this kangaroo”, “Diogenovny”, “- We catch shrew fish on marshmallows”, “This, Dunya, at the herbarium”, “To loud. To wow!”, “The stars are like flies”, “Sadness-sadness is a collective thing”, “Ayda, darling, collect bananas”, “And in the summer we go skiing against the wind to pick mushrooms!”, “Nonche a miracle weeds."

As in an old computer game, everything appears in the "miraculous forest" not immediately, but gradually, as if through the dissolving and disappearing darkness of the unknown. “The map of my reserve is endless… New discoveries and new clues are waiting for you, or, maybe, on the contrary, new secrets and riddles. In general, here, as soon as you start to feel that you are about to catch the meaning of the essence of things, then some kind of nonsense happens, which turns all your ideas upside down… And these very nonsense are part of the invisible foundation on which it stands for now a wonderful world that I have not yet fully explored.

During the exhibition, which will last until February 4, 2023, visitors will be offered to solve an art quest, where they will be able to offer their interpretation of what is happening in the Miracle Forest.

Evgeny Rodionov lives and works in Vologda. The artist is a participant of numerous solo and group exhibitions. His works are in private collections and collections in Russia, USA, Australia, Slovakia, Italy, Scotland, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, Kazakhstan.

Gallery ARTSTORY: Moscow, Staropimenovskiy per., 14 (metro station "Tverskaya", "Mayakovskaya"). Every day, except Monday, from 12.00 to 20.00. Entrance by tickets (200 rubles; persons under 18 years old - 100 rubles; children under 7 years old, pensioners and privileged categories - free of charge). Tel. 8 (495) 650-75-54