Exhibition of the artist Zhenya Chef Automatic translate

September 15 at 15-00 in the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts (Lenin St., 104, exhibition hall) will open the personal exhibition of the artist Zhenya Chef, dedicated to the tragic events of 1918 in Yekaterinburg and the 100th anniversary of the Kaluga Museum. The exhibition will feature portraits from the artist’s project, first presented at the 55th Venice Biennale 2013.

Zhenya Chef is a contemporary Russian artist living in Germany.

Born on January 28, 1954 in Aktyubinsk, Kazakh SSR, USSR. His father worked as a photojournalist in the Izvestia newspaper and in the late 30s he was expelled from Moscow to Kazakhstan, where he had a son. In 1961, the family was allowed to return to the capital. 1967-71 - Eugene Schaeffer studies at an art school in Moscow. In 1977 he graduated from the Printing Institute (specialty "Painting and Graphics"), the thesis was awarded the first prize for illustrations to the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Since 1978 - a member of the Union of Artists in Moscow. At that time, he was one of the authors representing unofficial art of the USSR along with such artists as Ilya Kabakov, Victor Pivovarov, Anatoly Zverev and Semen Faybisovich. Then began to use the pseudonym Zhenya Chef.

In 1985, Zhenya Chef left for the West. He lived in Spain and Germany. In 1988 - 1993 studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, which he graduated with a gold medal. Metropolis Magazine in May 1993 noted that during this period, Zhenya Chef constantly traveled “between Vienna, Berlin, New York, and the Spanish coastal village of Cadaqués”, representing “a new type of Russian artist with a wandering lifestyle.” He is currently a member of the European Society for the Preservation of Classical Aesthetics.

In 1993 he moved to New York, where he took part in a number of collective exhibitions of artists from the former USSR (2014: Zhenya Shef, Ilya Kabakov, Oleg Vasiliev. “The Blinding Light of History”, Art Museum of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA). He participated in the Moscow Biennale (2007, installation of My Personal Temple / My personal temple); 55th and 56th Venice Biennale (2013, Dead House installation; 2015, Telluria Pavilion, project with Vladimir Sorokin). 2017 - Museum of the Cathedral of Mdina: Biennale of Contemporary Art, Malta. Received first prize in Painting section at the XX International Biennale of Miniatures (Gornji Milanovac) in Serbia.

Zhenya Chef created illustrations for many books, including for the publication of prose and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe (Moscow, Rainbow, 1983) and Nothing Lasts Forever by Michael Lederer (Barcelona, ​​Parsifal Ediciones, 1999).

In 2017, the artist was awarded the title of Honorary Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Currently lives and works in Germany.

The master about his work: “For me, the main thing is aesthetics, and it depoliticizes all the figures that I depict. I deliberately deprive political figures of their “politicism”: Lenin, Leo Tolstoy and Louis XIV may be present on one canvas, and this is not about politics, but about life, about biology, before which any politician will break his leg. All my characters are extras for me in the theater of history and human life. This is a reflection on the fate of the twentieth century, on the fate of humanity and the fate of our compatriots. I am sure that the artist should cause a discussion. But not ideological. In a work of art, everyone sees what he wants and is able to see. And if a person constantly thinks about dictatorship - then he will see dictatorship in my works. If, on the contrary, he thinks of harmony, he will see in my works a call for the restoration of harmony, which was destroyed in the 20th century. But I can say for sure that I’m not promoting anything: on the contrary, I urge you to abandon any propaganda and look at the story from the side ”