«Flora of the Disasters» exhibition project
The curator.
Professor of Modern Arts at the ICU School of Design. Artist, curator, art critic, participant in Russian and international exhibitions, head of the TSHR interregional creative workshop, winner of the Kandinsky Prize.
Participants in the exhibition
— Ilgiz Ahmetzianov — Xenia Grange — Yekaterina Ivanitzka — Alina Smolina — Anna Stavicipenko — Paulina Philipova — Victoria Schmigovsky
Concept
This exhibition fits into the growing artistic direction that garden artist André Feliciano has identified as Floressance. Art is increasingly turning to vegetation, including in the form of real collective horticulture as an art of relationships. Why plants have become so important, grow from background or adornment to the hero of our time — it seems that, in an era of increased intolerance and human cruelty, in the world on the verge of a nervous breakdown, they can teach us to live more honestly, to keep us from falling, to make us feel the soil under our feet. For example, one of the intellectual guidelines of this decade was a book by British writer Olivia Lang, «Sad versus Time. In search of a paradise for all, where she tells us how she survived the pandemic by taking care of an abandoned garden. Painting and plants have many similarities. This and other speed — the picture takes a long time to create, just as the plant does not appear in the moment. Staticity gives the rabid rhythm a welcome pause to stare. And we invite paintings and plants into our lives, perhaps just to relate ourselves not to eternity. The view of the participants in the exhibition on plants can be seen as a sort of resistance to the Duscrilling, a requirement of the right to reflect, to one’s own life. It’s time to watch the trees grow and grow themselves.
Work
The works of Ilgiz Ahmetziyanov 1. Secret counselor. Holst, acryl. 100×130 2. At the water park. Holst, acryl. 100×130
In the work of Ilgiza Ahmetziyanov with the imaginary secret meetings of the leaders of unknown countries, the most stable is the ficus in boats. They’ve seen so many of these meetings, some of them think they’re the most important, some of them the others. The speech of the Blackyrdin in another painting is placed on a flowery background, based on the name of the Jostian painting, when you would know from which sore… unknowing shame.»
The works of Ksenia Grande 1. «Meditationtime», Halst, oil, 150×100 cm2. «Slowdown», Halst, oil, 120×100 cm
Ksusha Grange, who works on the theme of women’s identity and overcoming imposed roles, creates a version of the new Ophelia, which is happy in its loneliness, calm and self-sufficient, and the desert around it is beginning to turn into a pond with jugs. Flowers, Shakespeare’s former companions of sadness, «Take it, the gift is not good for us when the one who gave it is not happy,» «Here’s a margarita; I would give you a violin, but they all faded when my father died; they say he died well.»
The work of Catherine Ivanitzka 1. Internal Garden. Halst, coal, 100×175 2. Inner garden three. Halst, coal, acryl, 70×90
Catherine Ivanitzka in her series «Inner Garden» summarizes her experience of art therapy with women, who often choose plants as images of fragility and vulnerability. All these complex feelings are turning into plant nodes, which need to be handled carefully to avoid damage. Do not be afraid of the complexity of the inner world: children’s sandals under the shadow of the grass — a form of protection and shelter.
Alina Smolina 1's work. The boots are two. Holst, acryl. 80×120 2. Error. Holst, acryl. 50×57
Alina Smolina works with the landscape as a «split form of sensitivity». More realistic landscapes move us to the opportunity to experience happiness by taking us out of the difficult circumstances of social life and making us part of nature. But already in this realism, the energy of the hand moves, in other works, becomes the story itself: it’s the dynamics of the breath of nature itself.
The work of Anna Stavipezenko 1. Shining. Holst, acryl. 110×110 2. This is where my dress hangs. Holst, acryl. 120×100
One of Anna Stavipezenko’s constant themes is paradoxical, non-conventional associations of natural and man-made, when a person ceases to be a measure of all things, his efforts and actions are viewed from a different perspective. The abundance of plants in the interior may look like a massive vanitas, a post-apocalyptic scene, a memory, a desire to be not here in the palace, but in a wheat field.
The works of Pauline Philip Kinetic Series. Halst, butter. 150×100
Paulina Philipova looks at the static and natural through the speed of life of a modern man, the look from the window of a flying machine, the centrifugal windstorm of a rope into the road, and life itself flies by falling in pieces of glitch. It’s impossible to hold anything back, but maybe it’s a new, green version of Turner’s rain, ferry and speed.
The works of Victoria Schmigovsky 1. Recretion. Holst, acryl. 150×200 2. Angle. Halst, butter. 80×80
In its new series, Victoria Schmigovsky is trying to stop the endless flow of information, the possession of many things, when «enough and want nothing.» Here we do not see plants as such, but we begin to experience time in a different way, looking at it, we can assume that this is the way we see plants standing still in time that doesn’t run, but is soft and cozy, and you can just be. It’s so quiet here, you can hear the cotton of one hand.
General type of exhibition project
Artists
Ilgiz Ahmetziyanov Modern Russian painter lives and works in Moscow. Currently, a Master ' s degree at the VSE Design School in Modern Painting (curator Vladimir Potapov). Ilgiz won’t answer, he’s just drawing. Every swab is a witness. Every color is a hint. Every song is part of a big puzzle, and «they» really don’t want you to collect it!
Xenia Grange Artress lives and works in Moscow. In 2014-2015, an annual training programme was held at the Ilya Repin Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. The artist then returned to Moscow and joined the V. I. Surikov MGAHI in the Department of Painting. Since 2023, the artist has been involved in the practice of contemporary art, has entered the workshops of the School of Design and has been educated in the direction of «modern painting», and has actively participated in group exhibitions from Art Wyschka. Its work is in private collections of Russia and UAE. Selected exhibitions: «The Green Light», Arbuzz Gallery, Moscow, 2024 / / Art Tower Movement, DC RUT, Moscow, 2024 / / «The City of Przassing», Damirov Gallery, Moscow, 2024
Catherine Ivanitzka B 2002 graduated from the UFI Department of Journalism and worked in federal and regional publications as a photographer and journalist. Since 2012, he has been running creative workshops for children and adults in Moscow. In 2018, he received a diploma from a therapist in express arts at the IYMPU, and he runs art-therapeutic groups and individual studies. Since 2022, he has studied graphics in the Elementary School, graduated from the British High School of Design, an Art class. Currently, a student of the Master ' s degree at the VSE Design School, Modern Painting (curator Vladimir Potapov). Works with images displayed during art therapy sessions, pulling them out of unconsciousness. The artist looks at this experience in a phenomenal way. Quoting Merlo-Ponty’s Perception Femenology: Art becomes an account of the living space, time, world. Selected exhibitions: «Leto Here», Gallery here in Taganka, Moscow, 2024 / / «HOROD Przaospsae Up». A two-part collective exhibition, Damirov Gallery, Moscow 2024 // «Driving», DC RUT, Moscow, 2024 ///Festival of Art-degustion, Art Tower of ICU, Moscow, 2023.
Alina Smolina Modern Russian artist, lives and works in Moscow. She graduated from the Lippetsk Art School #1 of the 40th. In 2010, she graduated from WGUTiS, where she studied painting and graphics. In 2014, she graduated from the British High School of Design in Visual Communications. From 2023, she was a student at the Higher School of Economics, HSE ART, the Master’s School of Modern Art. The main theme of the work is the landscape in terms of tangible aesthetics and the principles of sensationality. The landscape is an emotional loss. Selected exhibitions: Collection, MOMMA, HSE ART GALLERY, Moscow 2024 / / Leto Here, Gallery here in Taganka, Moscow, 2024 / / GOROD PRZAOSAYE. It’s a two-part collective show. Painting. Damirov Gallery, Moscow 2024 / «Vernisage» by the Electrical Plant Gallery, Moscow, 2023. Fairs: *catalog 2024 * Moscow, 2024 / / Art Fair 5.0, Gallery A3, Moscow, 2024
Anna Stavilienko Anna Stavipezenko began her creative journey from a classical art school. Her initial stage of artistic education was then her admission to the Ivan School of Art, M.I. Malutin, Department of Industrial Design. In 2019, the artist decided to move to St. Petersburg, where she continued her education at the Faculty of Design at the prestigious A.L. Stiglitz Art Academy. In 2023, Anna moved to Moscow and enrolled in a master’s program at the Higher School of Economics in the direction of modern painting. To date, it is actively developing in a creative workshop under the leadership of modern artist Vladimir Potapov, improving its unique style of painting.
Pauline Philipov is an artist. Lives and works in Moscow. She graduated from the Maurice Torez IPF in 2015, lived and studied in Korea in 2013, and lived and studied in the United States in 2014. I received individual training in painting and drawing from V. I. Surikov ' s MGAHI teachers. Head of the Mone & Mane Art Studio (2019-2023). In 2023, she graduated from the British High School of Design in Fine Arts. Currently, a student of the Master ' s degree at the VSE Design School, Modern Painting (curator Vladimir Potapov). Selected exhibitions: «Collection», Vince Plant, HSE ART GALLERY, Moscow 2024 // «Virtuality», Artocratia Gallery, CUBE, Moscow, 2024 // «Leto Here», Gallery here in Taganka, Moscow, 2024 //"Damirov Gallery, Moscow 2024 // «Earthing», Molbert Gallery, St. Petersburg 2023. The works are in private collections in Russia, the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.