Exhibition "The Bright Side of the Moon" by Oleg Sheludyakov

Cultural Center CK19 presents the exhibition "The Bright Side of the Moon" by the well-known Novosibirsk artist Oleg Sheludyakov.

Although the artist has long lived in France, he still has a large number of devoted admirers of his work in his hometown. Almost every year Oleg Sheludyakov holds vernissages of his new works, and CK19 is one of the venues where his exhibitions have been hosted more than once.

This year the exhibition will feature about 100 works that reveal a range of themes and subjects traditional for the artist. There will be views of pompous European cities — Paris, Rome, Venice — as well as picturesque medieval villages lost in the Primorsky Alps, mystical, dreamlike landscapes, enigmatic portraits, and cheerful, cheeky still lifes. And, of course, the audience-favorite images of romantic young women in the company of well-fed cats, philosophically minded fish, and carefree birds flitting from canvas to canvas.

Nevertheless, for the artist himself this exhibition is largely innovative. For the first time, the majority of the presented paintings are done in acrylics. To someone far from fine art the difference between oil and acrylic painting may seem barely noticeable, but to the connoisseur it is provocatively intriguing: as if a sculptor had abandoned marble in favor of the unexpectedly revealed plastic virtues of modeling clay.

The artistic medium largely determines the style and plasticity of a work. For viewers who follow the artist's output, many of these images are already well known. However, refracted and flowing from oil into acrylic, they acquire a new voice and new shades — of color and meaning. Still, the traditional oil painting beloved by the artist will, of course, also be present. It is all the more interesting to observe the tension that arises at the polar extremes of this creative magnet.

The exhibition took its name — "The Bright Side of the Moon" — from one of the paintings and, it seems, aptly conveys the general mood and atmosphere of the show: mysterious, half-real, intimate and at the same time unattainable.

About half of the exhibited paintings were created over the past year in France and brought to Novosibirsk, which, in the author's view, given the realities of our difficult times, can in itself be considered an adventurous artistic project.

The exhibition runs until August 25, 2024.