ABOUT THE ARTIST
Vldimir Shestakov…
…the painter who moves apart
the limits of space…
The paintings of Vladimir Shestakov, created under inspiration of his numerous travelling all over the world, are full of lively colours and bright impressions. Avidly imbibing an atmosphere of every trip and keeping on making new discoveries, this painter shares with us in his works all the intensity and wealth of his life experience. Creative power of Vladimir Shestakov is as profound and infinite, as the diversity of cultures that he has perceived in the course of his multiple travels and work experiences in different countries. Imperceptibly he carries us to the deep of the developments, he has gone through, and places, he has seen, reproducing in his paintings these vivid and intriguing moments of his life. A feeling of perpetual motion, immensely lively and dynamic that runs through all the works of Vladimir Shestakov, implacably carries us away, as if it invites to make a travel and to discover the author’s idea. The versatility and verve of canvases are achieved thanks to the unique combination by the painter of traditional drawing techniques and the most innovative methods. A specific style of this painter, marked mainly by expressionism in the form and throwing into experiments with a symbolism and slight traces of surrealism, is profoundly expressed in his particularly free manner of painting. The artist’s strong interest in creative travelling and in the history and culture of many countries contributed to forge him a reputation as an “itinerant painter”. This interest also led him to create so many pictorial series. REMINISCENCES OF RUSSIA, for instance, evokes Russia’s holy places. RETRACING RAKHMANINOV’S STEPS is dedicated to the musician’s fate, life, and creative work. As for the series of paintings entitled WIND RUSH, they do not suggest a dream but a reminiscence of the future….One sometimes has the feeling that one is able to perceive emotionally what one has never seen before. According to these fantastic wanderings, and as through a mirror, Time is reflected, before and after, on the path to Eternity. The creative work of V. Shestakov is profoundly marked by an intense feeling of communion with nature, added to a strong pain and a sensitivity that make of his work a hymn to nature and life, a highly expressive work. The collection of canvases called MOVEMENT integrates some of the painter’s ancient discoveries to the fruit of his recent search on the transformation of forms in movement, a movement made of light and colour to turn abstract vision into the flesh of life. MOVEMENT is the clarification of the content, an attempt to blend harmoniously the formality of art with the reality of human existence. It represents a new outlook, a renewal. The painter’s new project AROUND THE MUSIC is a natural synthesis within his creative work. It intends to associate a visual series of canvases devoted to music to their representation in the atmosphere of a musical evening. The aim of the exhibition of these paintings is the harmonious union of sound and colour. The sight of the rhythms of movement, gesture and line. Artistic projects suppose the continued exploration of other kinds of art such as video and installations, and creating the works of painting, graphic art and poster. Thus “Jazz fantasy” and “Theatre of Masks”, the painter’s new project is a scene opened for explorations in the sphere of the synthesis of arts ,it is a search of style and of diversity of technical devices. «In “The Voice of Masks” Clade Lévi-Strauss raises a point of the identity of mask, of its significance and of its correlation between the myth and the aestheticism. And the similar search is undertaken by Vladimir Shestakov with this series of masks. Venetian masks, those of the Comedia dell Arte, African and Japanese masks, mask to laugh, to dissimulate...the choice of mask is never innocent.» / Press release of the EXHIBITION, EZE-VILLAGE. France / Today his works attract considerable interest among art connoisseurs from different countries: USA, France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Mexico, Russia and others. In the ARTisSPECTRUM Magazine (the Chelsea Perspective, New York), there was written the following concerning the works exhibited at the Agora-Gallery ( Contemporary Art Gallery, New York): « The stunning paintings of Vladimir Shestakov are even more spectacular and vibrant than the sum of their component parts, which include a mix Fauvist hues, Expressionistic brushstrokes, Cubist perspectives and Symbolist subjects. Trained in his native Russia, he now splits his time between St. Petersburg, artistic and intellectual Paris, and the South of France, and the brilliant Mediterranean sun exerts an unmistakable influence on his aesthetic. Each canvas spills over with bold, saturated colors that evoke the neon colors of graffiti and the sumptuous patterns of carnival costumes... » The basis of artistic conception and of life is MOVEMENT-participation in different projects, exhibitions, search of contacts and cultural exchange.
