Ivan Gorshkov
28 Nov 2013 - 25 Jan 2014
IVAN GORSHKOV
instant bliss
28 November 2013 - 25 January 2014
Knoll Gallery Vienna is happy to announce Ivan Gorhskovs first solo show in Vienna. Gorshkov belongs to the most promising and emerging artists of the young Russian art scene, born 1985. He lives and works in Voronezh and is currently attending an artist in residence program of the Leipzig International Art Programme. He participated in the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2011 and 2013, further he received two times the scholarship for young Russian artists of the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture Moscow.
Ivan Gorshkov is working with drawing, painting and sculpture. In all media he is applying his specific vibrant abstract language, but one which at some points still can be retraced to a representational approach, traditionally taught in Russian art academies. In his drawings, mostly using pencil or pastel, he is elaborating complex layers of color, structure, semi-abstract forms, sharp and soft strokes. All those elements compete with each other, but none of them is inferiored. Gorhskov defines a somehow harmonious setting for those contradictory forces without withdrawing the perceivable tension. The same can be said about his sculpture, though there are more layers to be added - the physical material and the three-dimensional transformation. Mostly working with iron and electric welding, this bulky substance is challenging in many ways as it doesn't inherent any round forms, soft segues or volumes. Gorshkov forces the material to morph. His sculptures are the result of a vigorous and at the same time subtle artistic struggle between idea and materialization: "Often the material is unpredictable, and I love sculpture for that. I'm deliberately working with contradictions, recasting sculpture repeatedly." This ongoing dialogue and artistic process is embodied in his seemingly rawish sculptures. It is the coloring and the eased placement of his particular abstract language known from his drawings and paintings that merges all elements into one doubtfully peaceful three-dimensional object. At first sight they may appear as fragments or broken shapes of a failed big picture, but in fact they never belonged to it.
instant bliss
28 November 2013 - 25 January 2014
Knoll Gallery Vienna is happy to announce Ivan Gorhskovs first solo show in Vienna. Gorshkov belongs to the most promising and emerging artists of the young Russian art scene, born 1985. He lives and works in Voronezh and is currently attending an artist in residence program of the Leipzig International Art Programme. He participated in the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2011 and 2013, further he received two times the scholarship for young Russian artists of the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture Moscow.
Ivan Gorshkov is working with drawing, painting and sculpture. In all media he is applying his specific vibrant abstract language, but one which at some points still can be retraced to a representational approach, traditionally taught in Russian art academies. In his drawings, mostly using pencil or pastel, he is elaborating complex layers of color, structure, semi-abstract forms, sharp and soft strokes. All those elements compete with each other, but none of them is inferiored. Gorhskov defines a somehow harmonious setting for those contradictory forces without withdrawing the perceivable tension. The same can be said about his sculpture, though there are more layers to be added - the physical material and the three-dimensional transformation. Mostly working with iron and electric welding, this bulky substance is challenging in many ways as it doesn't inherent any round forms, soft segues or volumes. Gorshkov forces the material to morph. His sculptures are the result of a vigorous and at the same time subtle artistic struggle between idea and materialization: "Often the material is unpredictable, and I love sculpture for that. I'm deliberately working with contradictions, recasting sculpture repeatedly." This ongoing dialogue and artistic process is embodied in his seemingly rawish sculptures. It is the coloring and the eased placement of his particular abstract language known from his drawings and paintings that merges all elements into one doubtfully peaceful three-dimensional object. At first sight they may appear as fragments or broken shapes of a failed big picture, but in fact they never belonged to it.