Artwalk Izhevsk, 2008

There is a lot of artwork in the region, and we've been able to get to one or two of the galleries or otherwise see some great work. Here are some favorites!

Some of the best art is folk art. At the village we visited, a local woman had done this weaving of the Russian version of the world origin story: the world sits on a bull's horns, and the bull is standing on a whale. No other info on how that story came about, but it's a beautiful picture!

At an Izhevsk gallery: I loved this guy's work, although another American described it as a guy with a fetish for vicious animals. Feel free to take a stand anywhere on that continuum! I like the fact that all of these paintings are done on fabric--bedspreads mostly--which also ensures that they are large in size. The design on the fabric added both texture and form, and sometimes it even contrasts with the animal image. Also, the print works its way in and out of the painted areas, like with these dogs

Other times, like with this giraffe, the pattern in the fabric seems to suggest the animal, and can be clearly seen through the painted areas adding a kind of accent to the lines of the jaw and neck...




With these wolves the fabric pattern looks more like sound waves and blowing snow to me, which also adds movement and depth. (If you get up close to the fabric, it's actually a repeated pattern of ducks in marsh...)

There was also a minimalist painter that we saw, and I quite liked some of his work as well. This one in particular I found quite joyful, which is a word I use very rarely in relation to minimalism....

However, exhibitions are only one way we've seen art--the churches are full of icons inside (no photography) and out. This tiled icon is from St. Michael's, the Izhevsk cathedral. The more colorful renderings seen here are from the interior of St. Basil's in Moscow, which are currently being restored in both shape and brightness. See, it's just so understated on the outside, you really need to have some 'pow' in the interior...

In that (now) cathedral of consumption next to St. Basil's (Goom--the huge arcade mall on Red Square) there was a wonderful display of Italian furniture design. Some wonderful pieces--great shapes and lines...

Back in Izhevsk, the Kalashnikov museum had a really interesting competition for decorative shotgun shell casings. It took me awhile to figure out quite what they were, but the graphics are quite cool on many of these prints...you see the full wrapping on the right, and the shell on the left in each one.
One of my all-time favorite shows, though, has just opened here at the university. It's a collection of "scrolls" done by urdo-finnic ethnic groups in the region, each community contributing what they wanted. It was a wonderful collection!