| Demin Maxim Dmitrievich For quite a long time, while working with works of Old Russian painting, both easel and monumental, I have collected visual material to work with my projects. I have always felt the desire to find a common visual language between two eras. I have always been impressed by the ancient damaged, darkened icon boards, the ruins of architectural structures and the minimalistic but very expressive techniques of the artistic crafts of the Russian North of the past centuries. At the same time, I have always admired the abstract expressionists of the 20th century, the "sixties", the conceptual works of contemporaries, and some of the street art works. In trying to combine and balance the two opposites, I experimented a lot with material and technique. In the process of creating new works, I noted for myself that I like working with old natural materials (wood, metal, fabric); this brings me much closer to the original source of my works. I started infusing my works with real compositions of ancient Russian monuments, occasionally resorting to the depiction of more ambiguous, intuitive images. Combining in this way the aesthetics of minimalism and ruins, using modern technologies on old materials, I came to a certain common denominator, within which I began to actively develop my art. I have always tried to achieve maximum expressiveness with minimal means in my compositions. The so-called “images" or “untitled compositions", as I call them, have a restrained color scheme and are often depicted inside a conditional formless space for greater immersion of the viewer inside the work, and feeling oneself inside the space in close proximity to the image. As visually they remind of the old, darkened faceless icons, albeit sometimes only ostensively, often painted in a rather expressive manner, they very accurately reflect the depth of feelings at the time of creating each of them, and the contrasting relationships of colors add expressiveness, despite the meager palette. In my works I talk about what many are embarrassed to talk about out loud. I am talking about God in the modern world, about the modern man's perception of religious classical art in the era of digitalization, about the impossibility to live and exist without knowledge of previous artistic and spiritual experience, about destruction and inaction, about prophecies and predictions, and about personal spiritual experience. |
Selected projects:
2024 – Erarta Museum “Revelations of the Soul", St. Petersburg.
2024 – QI “Wing” solo exhibition “Window to the Good News", Moscow.
2024 – Museum of the History of Religion, exhibition of the project "After the Icon", St. Petersburg.
2024 – Mira Center, exhibition "Visible - invisible", Suzdal.
2023-2024 – CSI "Fire", solo exhibition "Forty", Irkutsk.
2023 – Arkhangelsk Museum - Reserve, exhibition "Not the Past", Moscow.
2023 – Astra Gallery (Winery), Statement project, Moscow.
2022 - Center for Contemporary Art, festival of contemporary art "Enlightenment", Yaroslavl.
2022 – Khazine National Art Gallery of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, Biennale of Contemporary Art “Word Source Code", Kazan.
2022 - Art Therapy Center Villa Artis, solo exhibition 'Untitled. Favorites', St. Petersburg
2022 - Museum of Contemporary Art Artmuza, personal exhibition "Lignum", St. Petersburg.
2021 - I biennale of Christocentric art, Chernigov podvorye, Moscow.
2020 - Personal exhibition at the IMDRart gallery, Moscow.
2020 - Creative Union of Artists of Russia, project "ART workshop XXI", Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Samara.
2019 - Creative Union of Artists of Russia, project "ART workshop XXI", Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Kaliningrad, Togliatti, Stavropol.
2019 - exhibition laboratory za shkoloy, personal exhibition "Untitled Saints", Moscow.
2019 - Annenkirche, "After the Icon", St. Petersburg.
2019 - Cathedral of Christ the Savior, "After the Icon", Moscow.
2019 - Exhibition Hall of the Moscow Union of Artists, "Philosophy of the Canon", Moscow.
2018 - Exhibition Hall of the Moscow Union of Artists, "In Search of the Lost Middle", Moscow.
2018 - Center for Contemporary Art "Art Box", III International Exhibition-Competition of Contemporary Art "Festival of Abstraction", Moscow.
2016 - Zverev Center for Contemporary Art, "Alchemy of the Process", Moscow.
2016 - Gallery Here on Taganka, curated by Andrey Bartenev, Moscow.
2015 - Gallery Nagornaya, IV International Project "Abstract Art in Modern Russia" SPACE OF THE IDEAL, curator of the project David Ru, Moscow.
2014 - Central House of Artists, "Russian art week", Moscow.
2014 - Moscow State University of Design and Technology, "Art future actual problems of contemporary art", Moscow.
2013 - Central House of Artists, international art exhibition "At the crossroads of sunny roads", Moscow.
2012 - Central House of Artists, International Art Exhibition "Open Look", Moscow.
2024 – QI “Wing” solo exhibition “Window to the Good News", Moscow.
2024 – Museum of the History of Religion, exhibition of the project "After the Icon", St. Petersburg.
2024 – Mira Center, exhibition "Visible - invisible", Suzdal.
2023-2024 – CSI "Fire", solo exhibition "Forty", Irkutsk.
2023 – Arkhangelsk Museum - Reserve, exhibition "Not the Past", Moscow.
2023 – Astra Gallery (Winery), Statement project, Moscow.
2022 - Center for Contemporary Art, festival of contemporary art "Enlightenment", Yaroslavl.
2022 – Khazine National Art Gallery of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, Biennale of Contemporary Art “Word Source Code", Kazan.
2022 - Art Therapy Center Villa Artis, solo exhibition 'Untitled. Favorites', St. Petersburg
2022 - Museum of Contemporary Art Artmuza, personal exhibition "Lignum", St. Petersburg.
2021 - I biennale of Christocentric art, Chernigov podvorye, Moscow.
2020 - Personal exhibition at the IMDRart gallery, Moscow.
2020 - Creative Union of Artists of Russia, project "ART workshop XXI", Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Samara.
2019 - Creative Union of Artists of Russia, project "ART workshop XXI", Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Kaliningrad, Togliatti, Stavropol.
2019 - exhibition laboratory za shkoloy, personal exhibition "Untitled Saints", Moscow.
2019 - Annenkirche, "After the Icon", St. Petersburg.
2019 - Cathedral of Christ the Savior, "After the Icon", Moscow.
2019 - Exhibition Hall of the Moscow Union of Artists, "Philosophy of the Canon", Moscow.
2018 - Exhibition Hall of the Moscow Union of Artists, "In Search of the Lost Middle", Moscow.
2018 - Center for Contemporary Art "Art Box", III International Exhibition-Competition of Contemporary Art "Festival of Abstraction", Moscow.
2016 - Zverev Center for Contemporary Art, "Alchemy of the Process", Moscow.
2016 - Gallery Here on Taganka, curated by Andrey Bartenev, Moscow.
2015 - Gallery Nagornaya, IV International Project "Abstract Art in Modern Russia" SPACE OF THE IDEAL, curator of the project David Ru, Moscow.
2014 - Central House of Artists, "Russian art week", Moscow.
2014 - Moscow State University of Design and Technology, "Art future actual problems of contemporary art", Moscow.
2013 - Central House of Artists, international art exhibition "At the crossroads of sunny roads", Moscow.
2012 - Central House of Artists, International Art Exhibition "Open Look", Moscow.