Who said that the value of art subject is estimated by experts? In MILDBERRY GALLERY, we believe art is something inspiring us, but not imposed on us by experts. We want to admire the art work, because we like it, and not because someone said that it has to be admired. And we don't care whether the author of the work is well-known or not. MILDBERRY GALLERY is a project about our subjective view and understanding of art. We present here the truly breathtaking works of art we do like, not the "experts". These works include painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, video art, unusual installations. If these works are of mastery and vivid we do not hesitate offering them the space at MILDBERRY GALLERY .
Send your works to us, tell us about your talented friends, and tell your friends about our project. We are waiting for new art works at: gallery@mildberry.ru.

Arshak Sarkissian was born in Gyumri, Armenia, in 1981. This 29-year-old artist is already well known in the world of contemporary art. Arshak was born in the family of famous artist Ararat Sarkissian, so he could not but follow in his father’s wake. In 2002 he graduated from the Cyprus College of Art in Cyprus, and in 2005 he was awarded the Presidential Prize of Fine Arts. In 2008 Sarkissian was selected among 1,500 candidates to participate in the annual Art Omi International Artist Residency program. The works of the participants of such programs usually are evaluated in seven-digit amounts.

His works were noticed and highly appreciated by the greatest art experts, including the members of the famous designer Fendi family. Sarkissian’s works are bought by private collectors in Europe and America. They were exhibited in Armenia, USA, England, Germany and Cyprus.

Arshak in his works tells us a story of deliverance from prejudices of society, about different people, their freedom and limitations, their pain and joy, loneliness and happiness… Everybody has a mask in this life, hiding with this mask his own confusion and shame caused by his own emotions. We need mask to talk on the important themes, since without it we usually talk hardly and boringly. Acting, theatre, vivid suites and colors can reveal even the most hidden qualities of human being.

That is why, probably, the works of Arshak are so theatrical. Theatre modes are very instrumental in terms of going out of the frames and playing own role with natural wishes and displays. Weird freaky people, unusual details, bizarre scenes created by Sarkissian, acting as a stage director, hold the spectator’s attention for a long time.

Sarkissian’s works are a parallel world; and the guide to it is a man with a chicken’s head appearing in various corners of the paintings-shows.

We were inspired by Arshak and his art, and created a joint art-experiment. The whole September, while the exhibition lasts, we’ll investigate a theme of inner freedom of human being, and we’ll do it with the help of theatre and stage-director Victoria Zvyagina.

At the exhibition’s opening our guests will see a performance with Arshak playing in it. Next three nights the sketches from The Night of Fenix new play will be shown. The main characters are people resembling those from Arshak’s canvases. Three stories will be performed telling us about freedom, its significance in life and its different levels; about those who are free people and what happens to those who can not dare to be free.

The performance will take place on September 2, during the exhibition’s opening; the sketches from the play will be shown on September 8, 16 and 23.

The artist’s site: http://sarkissian-art.com

Face is a perfect surface for creative work, an immeasurable and amazingly changeable testing area, whereof the eyes are the key element. However, hard we try to hide our emotions, our eyes always give us away. Whatever our ears might hear, we always know the truth expressed in a non-verbal manner.

The primary objective of my activity is to accentuate this idea; following it to its logical end and making everyone change his habitual view of appearance. I made a little experiment showing to some people an album of close-up photographs of faces, quickly turning over the pages and asking to identify the emotion they see on the photos. When they saw a picture of a person with the eyes closed, the time of their reaction increased. Without seeing the model’s eyes, one gets slower in his evaluation.

In the portrait series represented in MILDBERRY GALLERY I make the task even more complicated: paintings on faces distract the viewer’s attention. Looking at colorful masks, at the combination of colors and forms, we are abstracting from facial features and we are really looking into the eyes.

Leonid Lukin — photographer, painter, designer. Project website: http://www.pullaface.narod.ru.

Leonid presented his project “Faces Art” on June 4.

 

Born in New Jersey, Ja’bagh moved to Moscow 7 years ago and became a paragon for young photographers. At 22 he started to shoot covers, portraits and fashion stories for the leading glossy magazines: Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Fashion Cosmopolitan, Afisha, FHM, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Men’s Health, Moulin Rouge, Status, PLUS, BEAST, Ebyan, Amaan, V. At 27 he was the youngest artist to organize a solo exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art, and became one of the most influential photographers of the last decade in Moscow. Ja’bagh is also a popular advertising photographer; he has created many works for the largest advertising agencies in Russia. Ja’bagh feels that urban culture, with its music, club life, underground scene, is what appeals to him most; it inspired him to create his first limited edition art book “MOSKWA RAW” that successfully sells in Paris and New York.

Photographer and artist Ja’bagh Kaghado feels the energy of a bustling megapolis, its fashion, style and youth like nobody else does. Ja’bagh’s works are full of drive and rock sexuality. At MILDBERRY Gallery Ja’bagh presents his project called “The Obsession of…”, which includes images from the world of fashion made in cinema style. He will also present the video installation “Sex with John Galliano”. Ja’bagh took pictures for his collection at fashion backstage scenes at Paris and New York, at fashion shows of Dior, Galliano, Chanel, McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Ungaro, Sonia Rykiel, Hussein Chalayan, Betsey Johnson, Isabel Marant and Imitation of Christ.

MILDBERRY GALLERY presents the exhibition of the works painted by Moscow artist Petr Kozlov, specializing in realism and hyperrealism, and using the technique of painting in oils. The works by Kozlov create complex and fascinating space, consisting of color elements and details, each of them generating a separate subject, yet remaining a part of the canvas. This detailed space communicates subjects’ nature and features so precisely, that one can not have any doubts in the reality of painted fruits, vegetables, unseen birds, plants and surrealistic topics.

The exhibition is supplemented by several expressionist portraits, adding an emotional nuance to the realistic style of the artist.

The works by Petr Kozlov are presented in a number of private collections in Russia and USA, participating in exhibitions and expositions abroad.

The exhibition at MILDBERRY GALLERY will last till the end of March.

Djaid Shamilyevich Djamal was born in Nagorny Karabakh on November 15, 1928. He graduated from Surikov Moscow Art Institute. After his graduation, he underwent training at the Bolshoy Theater, worked as a set dresser at the Mayakovsky Theatre, as a painter at Progress and Raduga (Rainbow) publishing houses. About 60 books have been published with his illustrations. He also worked as a cartoonist for the “Soyuzmultfilm” Studio, was the chief painter of his Republic pavilion at the All-Russian Exhibition (VDNKh). Being a teacher at Moscow Architectural Institute, in 1961, he was sent to the People’s Republic of Mongolia as an advising teacher at the Ulan-Bator Art-and-Graphic Department. Thanks to that trip, he has forever grown very fond of Mongolia and become a pioneer of Mongolia in painting. Now Djaid Djamal is teaching “Colour in the Suit” discipline at Kosygin Moscow Textile Institute. He is a professor and assistant to the Dean. He also is a member of the Union of the Painters of Mocow, Azerbaijan and Mongolia, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Friends to Mongolia. He has been awarded by the following medals of the People’s Republic of Mongolia: 60 years of the Society of Friendship “Mongolia-Russia”, “For Peace and Friendship”, and “Friendship”.

In the creative life of the painter there have been more than 40 personal exhibitions recognized in Mongolia, Russia and other countries. Many of his paintings are exhibited at the museums in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Baku and other cities in the world. During the years of his creative and exhibition activity, Djaid Shamilyevich has made a set of more than 850 pictures devoted to Mongolia.

Djaid Djamal sees and paints Mongolia with the same uncluttered view and fresh colors as Gauguin saw and painted his Tahiti, Rerikh his Tibet and India. Mongolia’s movement and dynamism are at the heart of his paintings. The creation of many of them was based on the motifs of “The Secret Legend of Mongols”, the national historical document of the XIII century. His works have made a huge impression on the Mongolian public by the degree of the painter’s immersion in the depths of the national mentality, character and cultural space. D. Sh. Djamal’s works from 70-s years are presented at the exhibition arranged by MILDBERRY GALLERY; all the paintings and frames have been created in Mongolia.

“I am very grateful to my destiny that it has thrown me there to Mongolia and given me kind and intelligent friends. It was there, in Mongolia, that I took a brush for the first time and affirmed myself as a painter. This country and its people have awakened in me the love for art, history and life. Mongolia always lives in me, in my creativity, in my mind.” D. Sh. Djamal