We are proud to announce the latest exhibition of new works by the Russian born Painter, Ilya Volykhine. This will be the artist's sixth solo exhibition with our gallery and we are excited to exclusively present his newest collection of works.
The exhibition title Secret Messages refers primarily to the use of the collage materials in Russian Cyrillic, mainly copies of hand-written letters from his mother in Russia. The letters were sent to him whilst he was living in NYC and she was still in Russia. The personal history woven through his work harks back to days gone by.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Ilya does not set out to create a cohesive group of paintings for his exhibitions. Made without preconceptions, the pictures fertilise one another in the studio, with colours, symbols, and forms (cartoon-like and realistically rendered) drifting and reappearing among canvases.
Ilya does not rely on existing imagery or models for his paintings, and while some begin as tiny sketches, he works his imagines scenes directly onto canvas. He likens his process to reading a novel, with his paintings as surprisingly for their maker as for any viewer. Springing from dreams and shaped by experience, both past and present, Ilya's instinctive imagery and automatic approach capture the viewer and create a sense of wonder.