Maxim Morgunov. Horizons 6+ Automatic translate

Erarta Museum presents an exhibition of the artist Maxim Morgunov, whose works return the sky to the viewer as a formidable element

• Landscapes with crushing dynamics
• States of the world frozen in streams of acrylic paint
• Painting that resembles a time-lapse video

Speaking about his creativity and interest in landscape, Maxim Morgunov often uses the word "states". And we are not talking about atmospheric phenomena, but about a special mood. For ten years now, Morgunov has been teaching at the Academy of Arts and from time to time finds himself with students on sketches: here the wind, heat and the feeling of the flow of life, which is born in the process of observing the movement of light on the surface of a stone or the crown of a tree, give the fullness of the experience of nature. The artist manages to let the elements into his works - the dynamics of a crushing, irreversible, unknowable process.

The exhibition at the Erarta Museum acquaints viewers with several directions of the author’s work. In the oil paintings, visitors will see a mature professional, a carrier of the national landscape tradition. The main action of this painting takes place in heaven. And although nothing happens on the horizon that would excite the eye, under the slow movement of the thunderstorm front, a meadow shining with a kind of unearthly light begins to bend, and half-dead desert plants in the sun’s rays resemble the remains of an unknown civilization. The artist returns the sky to the viewer as a formidable element that is capable of incinerating, blessing with light and refreshing with water.

Working with acrylic, Morgunov brings down its streams onto canvases, creating an open-air atmosphere in laboratory conditions. This painting is like surfing: it’s like trying to ride a wave. The author no longer completely controls what is happening in the space of the picture - hence the illusion of movement and the energy of action in his landscapes. By directing the streams of paint, the artist observes how the states of the world itself freeze in them, in addition to human will being in perpetual motion. The quiet and expressive landscapes of the Novgorod region, collected in the exposition in Erarta, appear as bright psychedelic visions, which are difficult to keep a gaze on - like a current, they carry the viewer away. The painting of Maxim Morgunov is in tune with the rhythm of life: it is somewhat reminiscent of a video image in the time-lapse technique, where frames replace each other with a dizzying frequency.

About the author:

Was born in 1981 in Leningrad. In 1999 he graduated from the Art Lyceum. B.V. Ioganson, in 2005 - St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named. IE Repin at the Russian Academy of Arts (workshop of Andrey Mylnikov). Lecturer at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. I. E. Repin. Co-founder of the ProArt art school.

Member of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists. In 2008 and 2010 he worked on the creation of a portrait gallery of the chairmen of the State Council of the Russian Empire and the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Participant of more than 100 exhibitions in Russia and abroad. The author’s works are kept in the private collection of Dmitry Medvedev, in the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, as well as in public and private collections in many countries of the world.