Kolodzei
Art
Foundation
and
Barbarian
Art
Gallery
by
Natasha
Akhmerova,
in
collaboration
with
Phenomena
Project,
are
pleased
to
present
Valery
Yershov:
Lost
Wanderings
at
White
Box,
329
Broome
Street,
New
York,
New
York.
The
exhibition
will
run
from
February
26
to
March
11,
2010.
Lost
... Read more
Kolodzei
Art
Foundation
and
Barbarian
Art
Gallery
by
Natasha
Akhmerova,
in
collaboration
with
Phenomena
Project,
are
pleased
to
present
Valery
Yershov:
Lost
Wanderings
at
White
Box,
329
Broome
Street,
New
York,
New
York.
The
exhibition
will
run
from
February
26
to
March
11,
2010.
Lost
Wanderings
traces
the
journey
of
New
York‐based
Russian
artist
Valery
Yershov
into
an
ambivalent
and
ironic
present.
Yershov’s
paintings
appeal
to
the
viewer
on
both
analytical
and
emotional
levels
while
illuminating
broad
aspects
of
human
experience.
Artists,
entrepreneurs,
cowboys,
historical
figures
and
hippies
are
seen
displaced
from
their
usual
environment
and
positioned
amongst
tree
trunks
of
the
forest.
Over
the
past
decade,
Yershov’s
signature
style
has
forged
a
delicate
balance
between
dream
and
reality,
theatricality,
and
absurdity,
orchestrated
with
an
acute
attention
to
detail.
Valery
Yershov
was
born
in
1960
in
Yessentuki
(located
at
the
base
of
the
Caucasus
Mountains),
Soviet
Union,
and
studied
at
the
Leningrad
(now
St.
Petersburg)
State
Repin
Academic
Institute
of
Painting,
Sculpture
and
Architecture.
Yershov
then
worked
at
the
artists’
community
at
Furmany
Lane
in
Moscow
(along
with
many
widely
recognized
perestroika
generation
artists).
Since
1989,
Valery
Yershov
has
lived
and
worked
in
New
York
In
Lost
Wanderings,
Yershov’s
reflections
on
the
phenomena
of
art
and
public
life
are
illuminated
through
his
artistic
process,
his
adaptation
and
reconciliation
with
a
new
life,
as
well
as
his
own
cultural
wanderings.
In
the
past
fifteen
years,
Yershov
has
explored
the
artistic
traditions
of
Realism
while
staking
his
position
on
figurative
painting
in
a
neo‐conceptual
art
era.
Yershov
is
interested
in
the
fusion
between
daily
reality
and
popular
culture.
In
Lost
Wanderings,
Yershov
avoids
any
direct
political
messages;
rather
than
straightforward
depictions,
he
reveals
poetic
truths
and
the
personal
struggle
of
an
individual.
Valery
Yershov
does
not
impose
his
own
reading
on
his
paintings;
instead,
he
suggests
the
ambivalence
of
meaning
and
encourages
multiple
readings
of
his
work.
Yershov’s
imagery
evokes
a
complex
range
of
human
emotions:
danger,
psychological
discomfort,
and
hope.
He
does
not
depict
leaves
or
branches
on
trees,
thus
depriving
the
forest
of
any
temporal
or
seasonal
changes;
instead
the
permanence
of
nature
foregrounded
in
the
outlines
of
rock‐solid
tall
tree
trunks,
is
juxtaposed
with
the
fragility
and
uncertainty
of
the
individual,
creating
an
evocative
contrast.
Certain
subjects
imbued
with
biographical
history
elicit
nostalgic
memories
of
Yershov’s
childhood;
remnants
of
the
Russian
empire
allude
to
the
cultural
and
historical
memory
during
the
tumultuous
times
of
the
Soviet
era.
Each
generation
and
its
diasporas
create
a
unique
cultural
heritage,
but
once
an
individual
is
placed
into
a
new
system,
he
or
she
may
experience
a
sense
of
insecurity
and
fear
of
an
unknown
future,
thus
resulting
in
feelings
of
loss,
displacement
and
wandering.
By
placing
characters
into
this
nonrealistic
space,
Yershov
highlights
a
unique
subjective
human
essence.
