The power of art is that, from time to time, the creative activity of one person has the ability to transport another person out of the realm of the material world to a place that transcends reality.
Three Kyiv artists are working to collectively influence reality with their vision of the unreal and transcendental.
Yuriy Zelenyi, Aleksei Paramonov and Gleb Grazhabovskiy are ZEPARG (an acronym derived from the first letters of their last names). Though the three come from different backgrounds and are of different ages, they seem remarkably in sync with each other's creative efforts. At the same time, each has his own style of painting and expression.
Yuriy Zelenyi, born in an artist's family in Kansk, Krasnoyarsk region, Russia, has at different periods in his life been a sculptor, a graphic designer for news posters displayed at collective farms in the former Soviet Union, and a portrait artist. Though Zelenyi received formal art training in Odessa and Moscow, he maintains that he mastered most artistic techniques by reading art books. In 1990, Zelenyi met artist and Kharkiv native Lidiya Gluskina. The two were fascinated with each other's creativity, and have been together since. They lived in Bulgaria for seven years and spent seven months in China, where they were inspired by the culture, which is often reflected in their work.
The two paint in oil on canvas, and jointly create their works. One sometimes takes the lead role on a canvas,
but it is often a creative game of cat-and-mouse that they play. Over 14 years, the couple has had more than 40 exhibitions in Ukraine, Bulgaria and China.
Their paintings mix the surreal with the transcendental, leading some reviewers to comment that while their work may be contemporary, it bucks the trend in modern art. Zelenyi takes the criticism in stride, hinting that he and Gluskina may be ahead of their time.
"If our talent as contemporary artists is not perceived by audiences today," he says, "then it might be that such our views are a message to be perceived in the future."
Zelenyi says he doesn't paint to necessarily please the Culture Ministry, but to do something new, to explore and open up undiscovered realms of creativity.
"There is no criterion, no evaluation scale to judge contemporary art," he says.
Zelenyi's union with Paramonov and Grzhabovskiy to form ZEPARG hasn't interfered with his artistic partnership with Gluskina. "We are separate in body and mind, but our souls are together," Zelenyi says.
Grazhabovskiy, a Kyiv-born artist, calls his creative technique "fatal symbolism with elements of surrealism" or a "confession in dash lines."
Trained as a sculptor, Grazhabovskiy's painting technique is simple from a technical point of view - ink on paper.
"My works, as a rule, shock the audience, helping them to comprehend the opposition of good and evil, to feel a human being's place in a limitless space of the infinity of time," he says. His art attempts to awaken the viewers' consciousness and to "make them see for themselves the true Creator behind this world."
In 2003, he published an art book, Mind and Flesh, which he said conveys his true vision of the world and the reality beyond it. He said that his paintings "don't fall into the concept of contemporary standards of modern art. The main task of my creative activity is to bring people back to spirituality and to wake up different levels of consciousness, enabling people to broaden their volume of imagination."
Grazhabovskiy's work has been exhibited in Germany and Ukraine, and Mind and Flesh is soon going to be translated into English.
Paramonov, the third person in the creative trio, call his art "an effort to express my vision of the world through symbols." In his oil paintings, Paramonov uses symbols that are easily comprehended, though he avoids using common religious or mythological symbols.
Born in Kyiv, Paramonov has studied art and art history since childhood. He was graduated from Kyiv State Technical University of Construction and Architecture, where he studied composition, sculpture, painting, and the history of architecture and art. After work as an architect, he went into private practice, designing cottage homes and doing interior design.
For the last several years, he's devoted most of his time to art. His general interest is in the European Middle Ages transformed into a fascination with the philosophy, heraldry and arms of the period.
"My impressions and thoughts get embodied in numerous sketches, which later become the basis for most of my paintings," he said.
Some see his paintings as aggressive.
"I try to draw the viewer's attention, so that they don't just glance at the work and walk away, but stop and think of what I am trying to say," he said.
In 2003, his first personal exhibition took place at Kyiv's Gorod N gallery.
Through ZEPARG, the three artists share thoughts and ideas while remaining free to express their own creativity, explore new applications for their talents and engage in both commercial and non-commercial projects.
A joint exhibition would be a natural expression of their collaboration, and this idea will materialize in February 2005 in Recklinghausen, Germany.
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