'People, Places and Things' by Ilya Volykhine
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A general sense of situations yet unexplored pervades each painting. Multiple panels featuring disparate images, colours, and stylistic flourishes, Ilya Volykhine’s paintings reverberate with a distinct aura that transcends narrative description. Despite a leitmotif of figurative elements, storylines are intentionally slippery.
“For me surprise is a necessity when making art. I welcome unforeseen accidents that transcend my imagination, and let myself go with the flow. Mistakes are also very welcome. Failure breeds success. With these works, I also started from zero without any preconceived concepts or ideas. In the latter half of making them, something like a theme (fragments) suddenly occurred to me, but that was also completely by accident, and to be honest, it doesn’t have any definitive meaning at all. If someone asked me how I chose exhibition titles, I wouldn’t have an answer. All I could say is, I dunno. In these works (and all the other ones too), I just painted the things I wanted to paint – my everyday feelings and thoughts. The people, places and things, I’ve seen or even imagined. These are the only things I keep in mind when I make my works. “
His works both suggest and withhold a sense of resolution, unearthing a near-universal human tendency to search for and project narratives. The artist’s staged compositions—his “mini stories”—pull viewers into the suggestion of a storyline, only to drive them into the chaos of abstraction. Even as the eye revels in the rich detail of each point and counterpoint, he deftly refocuses attention on the composition as a whole. This dynamic lyricism—created by elements that are always more than the sum of their parts—has long been the hallmark of Volykhine’s singular career as a painter.
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