Andrey Olenev
СHANGE OF SCENERY
СHANGE OF SCENERY
The exhibition presents a series of paintings and graphic works, objects, and an audio installation called "Bell". In the "Change of Scenery" project, the main motifs of the artist's work - nameless characters and homeless animals, abandoned places and the embodied materiality of urban antiquity, semantic multi-layering and playing with the viewer's perception - are united around the dramatic fate of the disappearing architectural heritage of Nizhny Novgorod.
"At first, it seems that the artist is working with the context of his native Nizhny Novgorod, where he lives and works - he studies its architecture, citizens and addresses the problem of reorganizing the urban space. Even the titles of the works contain references to toponymy: for example, "Forgotten on Semashko Street", "Decorating the Yard on Nesterov Street" or "Damned on the Square", in the center of which is the house where Maxim Gorky lived.
However, behind the documentary style there is already a mystical realism that is familiar to Olenev - the artist builds storylines, uses the wooden landscape of the city and his photographs of real places and heroes. The entire series of paintings is based on digital collage, but Olenev transfers it to wooden panels and continues to remain within the framework of classical painting, slightly violating the canons. At the same time, he continues his experience of working with wooden texture. Just a few years ago, Nizhny Novgorod artists painted and exhibited their drawings in the urban space, including on the facades of houses. That is why Andrey has retained his close relationship with these houses.
Text by Kristina Romanova
INFO
Andrey Olenev. One of the leading representatives of the Nizhny Novgorod art scene of the 2010s - the time of the formation and development of Nizhny Novgorod street art, a local trend that combined street art practices with the development of a unique visual language and strategies for interacting with the local historical and cultural context. Member of the informal art group Muddlehood and co-founder of the TOLK gallery, which has been supporting street artists in Nizhny Novgorod since 2014. Works in various forms and techniques (painting, pyrography, object, installation, artist's book). Known for monumental paintings on the facades of old houses in the historical center of Nizhny Novgorod, as well as multi-component wooden objects that completely or partially hide pictorial images and offer tactile interaction.
Alisa Savitskaya, Artem Filatov
"At first, it seems that the artist is working with the context of his native Nizhny Novgorod, where he lives and works - he studies its architecture, citizens and addresses the problem of reorganizing the urban space. Even the titles of the works contain references to toponymy: for example, "Forgotten on Semashko Street", "Decorating the Yard on Nesterov Street" or "Damned on the Square", in the center of which is the house where Maxim Gorky lived.
However, behind the documentary style there is already a mystical realism that is familiar to Olenev - the artist builds storylines, uses the wooden landscape of the city and his photographs of real places and heroes. The entire series of paintings is based on digital collage, but Olenev transfers it to wooden panels and continues to remain within the framework of classical painting, slightly violating the canons. At the same time, he continues his experience of working with wooden texture. Just a few years ago, Nizhny Novgorod artists painted and exhibited their drawings in the urban space, including on the facades of houses. That is why Andrey has retained his close relationship with these houses.
Text by Kristina Romanova
INFO
Andrey Olenev. One of the leading representatives of the Nizhny Novgorod art scene of the 2010s - the time of the formation and development of Nizhny Novgorod street art, a local trend that combined street art practices with the development of a unique visual language and strategies for interacting with the local historical and cultural context. Member of the informal art group Muddlehood and co-founder of the TOLK gallery, which has been supporting street artists in Nizhny Novgorod since 2014. Works in various forms and techniques (painting, pyrography, object, installation, artist's book). Known for monumental paintings on the facades of old houses in the historical center of Nizhny Novgorod, as well as multi-component wooden objects that completely or partially hide pictorial images and offer tactile interaction.
Alisa Savitskaya, Artem Filatov
