It is a closing party of My Russia Redrawn exhibiiton of paintings and sculpture by Philip Firsov at Frameless Gallery in Clerkenwell Green.
With a number of art works sold, including wood and bolts sculpture of Dame Glover Ditcher DBE CMG, that turned out to be the first ever sculpture made by Philip Firsov during his art student years, and a typical old Russian Restaurant oil on canvas - his re-interpretation of Kustodiev's Restaurant in Moscow 1916 painting, the show proved to be a success.
I asked Philip Firsov to share his experience of having a solo art show in London, invigilating it and hosting art parties.
"My Russia Redrawn exhibition was successful for me to celebrate a stage in my work of making big pieces, and particularly in paying homage to traditions. In this show I was demonstrating a vein in my practise of the ritual of dedication to traditional practise that I think every artist must pass through as a stage in their own formation of character and before making cardinal stylistic decisions," - said Philip.
On display there were tables covered in sketchbooks full of regularly but also casually sketched studies from artworks he had visited on his artistic pilgrimages throughout all of Europe. On the plynths were stone carvings and wood carvings, and imitations of art from different continents and time periods. All of these disciplines are the result of not only a particular period of time, but are a way of life - if you want to learn about art, it takes years...
The large paintings are another example of re-working from famous paintings that were chosen to represent the Russian idea of traditions and festivals. "This is not a patriotic hommage, but a hommage to the idea that is in the culture I was born in," - stated Philip. "It had been for centuries , the task of artists to create not only the Russian language through literature, but the task of painters to create images from their life, that became coined as a tradition."
"I enjoyed invigilating every day of the show and the 3 parties I held because I was able to talk people through what I am creating not only as an artist, but as a traveller and pilgrim of the arts of our continent at large.
I was also lucky enough to have a life drawing class where I was able to share my knowledge with people from practising together and passing on the craft of the use of colour, anatomy and drawing techniques. The parties were great fun because I had many unexpected visits from friends who live in China, Vietnam, Russia, and North England, who happened to be in town. There were also some friends - a drummer and musician Oleg Lapidus, playing clarinet and visitors dancing in the middle. People were even falling in love.
Director of Frameless Gallery Ciprian Ilie has been supporting me since we met in October 2010. We have agreed to do another show in September and I am working on a series of works in welded steel, that I hope will be more of my own invention. In a sense, I'm not going to pretend that a lot of what I have shown was completely original, but a kind of personal, re-reading and re-working, which is what makes it unique. What I hope to do now is weld these experiences of extant visual language into a poetry of my own, " - concluded Philip Firsov.
A small display of Acoustic Graffiti by Pianocrasher mixed media canvases accompanied My Russia Redrawn exhibition. They are based on a hilarious concept of a highly skilled and educated musician Oleg Lapidus, playing classical music pieces impromtu at classy venues in central London or in the street and therefore inevitably being stopped by security and administrators.
Video recordings of "pianocrashes" and the sound graph of his music, stopped by authorities form the basis of Acoustic Graffiti art works, that come as a result of committing a "pianocrash", documenting it and developing the video capture as well as the sound track further into a mixed media canvas. Quite a technology!
