On June 20 the ‘Blowup’ exhibition opens at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center.
The ‘Blowup’ exhibition is about eternal life acceleration in the course of which the surrounding details become inappreciable – and the author believes that these particular details are the home for the soul. Beauty of things is worthy of careful examination and in spite of general acceleration, the artist Alexey Begak seeks to explore it in details.
‘Painting is a looking glass, and when I get into it, I do not remember my name, do not realize the time and space. I'm the person I was originally created — without name, appraisals and fuss’, Alexey Begak says.
‘Blowup’ is a manifest of artist's return to the most important thing to him – canvas. The three halls of the exhibition give an opportunity to show three directions of Alexey Begak's interest. The first hall holds the paintings which gave the name to the exhibition — blowup in the truest sense of the phrase. The second hall demonstrated the works intended to minimize the artistic means and focus on the main thing which is the essence of the object. In the third room there is a series of pieces of work defined by the artist as suspense, dramatic expectation. At first glance, the real world and its fragments are illustrated in these canvases, but this world was invented and developed by the artist in his works.
27 works created by the author in the last three years will be showcased at the exhibition. This is the first exhibition of Alexey Begak’s works in the last 15 years.
Alexey Begak is a Russian artist, architect and a TV-host. During the last 20 years he has participated in art exhibitions in Russia, Europe and the USA; his works are included in private collections throughout the world.
After graduation from the V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute in 1983 he worked as a book illustrator and designer in publishing houses, and collaborated with the Art Modern Gallery (Moscow). In the 1990s, Alexey Begak's works were exhibited in London, Amsterdam, New York, and Moscow.
Since 1998 and until now, Alexey Begak has been engaged in architecture and design. In the last three years, he has returned to work on scenic paintings: ‘No matter how fascinating is my occupation, deep in my mind I feel annoyed that I'm not in front of my canvas now’. For Alexey painting is a territory of complete freedom and a possibility to express the subconscious without fuss and with clear mind.