Ivan Belyaev

MAT(T)ER

August 14th – 29th, 2021

“I was born and raised in Vologda. In the Middle Ages, this region of Russia received the poetic name Northern Thebaid and was a place where Christian ascetic monks went to seek peace and solitude. This atmosphere of calm and contemplative silence is poured here everywhere. The dull colors of the landscape, the dimensional rhythm of the lake waves ... I feel these colors and natural rhythms. This is my place, it means a lot to me.

Most of my works are vases. For me, a vase is an object connecting the eastern and western beginnings in me. The whole conceptual potential from Greek terracotta to Chinese porcelain. Functionally absolutely clear and at the same time absolutely self-sufficient decorative object. Thinking about a vase that led me to work on abstract objects, which I started not so long ago.”

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Silence of the way. Meeting

“Without feeling the need to give names, define, compare or search for a conflict, I feel the way, the essence of which is not movement, but fullness of presence.

The nature of the material, the viewer and the artist is one thing: we all are what we are. There is no primacy or primacy of someone in this union, but it is possible to allow it to be, without defining and without describing.

The word is not meant to describe the secret, but to indicate its being. Similarly, an object or a painting canvas exists in order to look at the world “through” them.

The stroke of a brush or tool in the process of work does not capture the moment, but testifies of it, as if the sound of a bell, released into eternity, becomes transparent for listening to silence.”