"Grey", a project of Michael Alshibaya Gallery Brusov Art communication

[Тамара]

Gray

An exhibition from the collection of Mikhail Alshibaya

Gallery Brusov Art communication /Bruce Lane., 2 /14, p. 1

15-29 January 2012.


   Michael Alshibaya - collector, and by main occupation heart surgeon, a man who knows the secret recesses of inaccessible eye of the human heart, presented the Moscow audience his next exhibition project called "gray." In this project a lot of strange things. Possible, even likely, it concluded a secret, known only to the author the idea of ​​subtext. For its project Alshibaya found in the downtown small, virtually unknown gallery. Exhibition Chamber - a total of 18 pieces. All works are united by one formal sign - dominated in the colors of gray. The author in his preface to the catalog says that this project - the impromptu utterance, emotion. That is something very personal. He draws an analogy between exposure and gray paintings in gray matter of the brain, your brain. At first glance, the work submitted does not relate to each other, except for the fundamental tone. Here things are taken out of context of different eras: pictures of non-conformists, as well-known (Krasnopevtsev, Roginsky, Vulokh, Bordachev) and not (Parkhomenko) side by side with the works of contemporary art context (Tishkov, Gutova, Sergei Volkov, Boris Matrosov, Chernyshova, Shuripy). There are also intermediate links - artists, standing closer to the circle of Moscow Union (Andrei Volkov, Michael Krunov), it is unknown names (Marina Falkovich). All this is reminiscent of the concepts of "community" and "line", which Alshibaya demonstrated in previous projects (MMSI, 2006, RSUH 2011). The key to this mystery, though a very fine exposition is that in this strange "segment" and the author has included his own work, in this case is not now, and the object - painted gray paint female mannequin. Michael Alshibaya long been experimenting with various kinds of puppets and live models. This is understandable because he is the main profession of surgeon, and every day has to deal with the naked human body. According to him, these experiments in art - or non-binding hobby, allowing him to be absolutely free.


  The project's author claims that between separate things, presented at the exhibition, "stretched the countless threads of bonds formed by either a gray spider web, or white matter, composed of nerve fibers." Gray refers to the current weather in Moscow, the social environment, state of mind of the public. But along with a quiet sadness in the project felt restrained fury Alshibaya, perhaps - revenge. The fact that his signature on the foot painted in gray mannequin made in red, if it were cut with a scalpel. A dummy itself is associated with voodoo dolls, as indicated by the author in a small press release, attached near the wall. Image puppet is placed on the cover of the catalog on the poster and invitation card. Thus, the attentive viewer, it is clear that this work is Alshibaya attached the greatest importance. In a press release it says about homeopathy, homeopathic magic, psychoanalysis. Perhaps all these arguments is hidden some sad mystery that the viewer is not able to solve. I venture to suggest that the author of the project involves the story of his love, perhaps, (as he says), the latter a strong sense of his life, since the opening day he turned 54. It is perfectly clear that this love - with elements of tragedy, for that matter, any strong emotion. In this case, this whole project is really homeopathy - treatment like with like, gray state of mind and the nature of a number of gray works. I hope that the treatment is effective today finally shone through the sun.
   Restrained gray exposure contrasted sharply with the incredible influx of motley crowds on opening day. In Alshibaya lot of friends in the artistic world, and in other circles. All the time I use the word "author" in relation to Michael Alshibaya, instead of the definition of "collector". The fact that he was a collector of some kind. The meeting Alshibaya not many masterpieces, it is collected, rather, some traces of time in an attempt to reconstruct the artistic era. Exhibition of his collection, he arranges to 2002, and, in most cases - their own curatorial projects. Among them are many memorable exhibitions such unexpected, as the "Firebird" at the Literary Museum, "The Metaphysics of" Gallery "A-3." In the same gallery in 2006 for Alshibaya showed his own project, which is heart surgery, as an act of art as a performance in which he included a few pictures of artists, as if illustrating the concept of a "spiral of the heart." That is Alshibaya long been used by the artists from his collection as a material to illustrate his own concepts. The same thing happened on the show "Grey."


  For many years Alshibaya repeats in their publications and speeches strange idea: art - a reminder of death. The first instant desire to refute this thesis is replaced after some reflection the understanding that the collector wants to say with decades of experience collecting. It's not much art can serve the decision purely formal problems? Perhaps it is engaged and "major" issues - matters of life and death. The exhibition "Gray" is also present allusion to the transience of time and the approach of the inevitable. The earliest work - "Arch" Dmitry Krasnopevtsev established in the year of birth of the author of the project, but most later established himself Alshibaya this year. Equation between the number of work stretches the specific line of life of one man, and he shows us the dotted line paintings from his collection in a small Moscow gallery.