Valentin Samarine

Abstract Photograph Post Soviet Russian Avant Garde Solarized Non Conformist

Artist Unknown. From Muse X Editions. An (now defunct) LA based innovative publisher of limited-edition prints, Muse X has launched its first group of prints and is just beginning to make itself known to artists, curators, dealers and collectors. Among works just off the press are otherworldly landscapes by Barbara Kasten and Oliver Wasow, a sizzling sunset by Peter Alexander, abstract compositions by Pauline Stella Sanchez and Jennifer Steinkamp...

Valentin Samarine started doing abstract painting in the 60s, and abstract photography in the 70s. He moved fairly easily from one to the other. It is in a perfectly logical sense: Valentin relies in both cases on a model of spontaneous creation, implemented in the post-war years in European painting, whether it is abstract expressionism (USA), action art (England) or tachism (France) . Valentin Samarine methodically destroys, at all stages, the mechanistic function of the photographic process. In Leningrad, he had experimented and put a dose of unpredictability at the time of the shooting and during the development. In Paris, Valentin went from the negative to the process of revelation of the positive, by giving the "representation the maximum of possibilities for possible metamorphoses, without imposing anything on it, in particular with regard to the range of colors. the metatechnics of contact between the still invisible, floating or spinning jets, like sleds coming down from the mountain. " (V. Samarine) This deeply respectful, almost religious attitude towards the process of creation and all its components allows the artist to approach the limits of three-dimensional space, beyond which vibrate the parapsychological, transpersonal and metaphysical dimensions. Insofar as metareality is unlikely to resemble that constantly returned to us by mainstream cinema, with its zoo- or anthropomorphic beings and its technical aggregates, the work of Valentin Samarine is, in a way or another, entirely non-figurative and abstract. Valentin Till Maria Samarine-Smirnov (1928) is a representative of Leningrad underground culture, immigrated to France in the early 1980s. His solo photo exhibition Sanki Magic was held in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Valentin Samarine was an active participant of the cultural and political life in Leningrad. In 1978, the photographer organized Studio 974, an art gallery in his own apartment. The studio hosted regular exhibitions of Leningrad artists and photographers. An atmosphere of total democracy reigned there. Samarine’s art recorded the key cultural events of the epoch. His photos depicted such significant events, as Andrey Tarkovsky’s burial service in Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Joseph Brodsky’s performances, cross procession in St. Sergey Metochion. Inspired by Choreographic Miniatures by Leonid Yakobson, the photographer was keen on ballet. He took pictures of many theater and ballet performances. But soon, through the pressure of the Soviet authorities, the photographer had to immigrate to France, where he continued his photo experiments. Samarine called his oeuvre Sanki Art. It was a special technique of the new old silver-based photography. Sanki is an ordnance of the old silver-based photography, metamorphoses of energy projections, invisible in the ordinary photo, metaphysics of invisible projections of the Light and the Shadow of the spiritual world of a person, his passions, said the author. The word Sanki was adopted from Sense energetics, a book about Ancient Chinese philosophy. The notion reveals invisible energy potentials of Time and Space, which determine our earthly existence. This special technique enables the master to display the things that are hidden from the viewers in the ordinary photos. Artworks by Samarine are in the collections of Moscow Museum of Modern Art; the Russian Museum; Yaroslavl Art Museum; the Museum of Non-Conformist Art, St-Petersburg; the State Museum of Urban Sculpture...

Igor Vishnyakov is a Russian Postwar & Contemporary artist who was born in 1968 in Moscow. Igor spent his childhood in Africa and Southeast Asia. After returning to Moscow in the mid-80’s he started painting and photographing key figures of the Russian avant-garde movement, and began to widely exhibit his work. In his youth Vishnyakov became a significant figure in the Moscow and St. Petersburg art community. He became a permanent member of the New Academy of Fine Arts soon after it was founded by Timur Novikov in 1989. He was first made aware of alternate photographic printing processes while studying in the New Academy. Amongst other photographers such as Novikov, Egelskiy, Alexandrov, Ostrov and other Academy members, Vishnyakov was engaged in reviving precious photo printing techniques widely spread in the XIX century, such as gum arabic pigment print, bromoils, calotypes, chirotypes, carbon process, Savrasov and Sery methods and many others. In 1990 Vishnyakov moved to New York to establish himself as a reporter and then as a fashion photographer and soon got his work published in a dozen of American and European magazines. Soon after, he continued his art education in the New York studio of a French painter, Emmanuel Flipo. Although living as an emigrant, Vishnyakov retained his connections with the Russian art world, especially with the New Academy, and participated in a number of group exhibitions. In 1997 he joined the movement that gathered neo-academics from Moscow and St. Petersburg. His very own established technique is mixed media, combining classical photography, gum arabic pigment printing, tempera painting and printing. The smallest details, such as the peculiarities and nuances of applying an emulsion, with the pressure of brush strokes, or paper texture, give a strange, mystic significance, to his whole work. Photographic details show through and then dissolve in the layers of paint, leaving the image slightly unexposed and the philosophical background unrevealed, impelling the viewer to come back over and over again. Vishnyakov’s work has a feeling of ephemerality, conveying a sense of never being truly finished, leaving the viewer in a truly meditative state. In his never ending reconnaissance of an ideal image of beauty, Vishnyakov is inspired by esoteric and Oriental spiritual practices. Everything finds a place in his art, whether it is Tao doctrine of five elements, symbols of Tarot’s Major Arcana, majestic temples of ancient India or plain netsuke figures. Whatever it is, his major principle is harmony, both inner and outward, spiritual and visual. Vishnyakov also teaches photography in America and Japan, practices kung fu and remains a Shaolin monk’s novice, a practice he has been doing for eleven years. At present he is living between New York and Moscow with his muse, the Russian supermodel, and talented painter, Sasha Pivovarova. SELECTED GROUP SHOWS Beauty of the Beast, Mimi Ferzt Gallery New York Mystical Neo-Realism, Barbarian Art Gallery Passion Bild. Bern Kunstmuseum Bern MIR Faberge, Royal Academy of Arts, London Russian House photography...

Igor Vishnyakov is a Russian Postwar & Contemporary artist who was born in 1968 in Moscow. Igor spent his childhood in Africa and Southeast Asia. After returning to Moscow in the mid-80’s he started painting and photographing key figures of the Russian avant-garde movement, and began to widely exhibit his work. In his youth Vishnyakov became a significant figure in the Moscow and St. Petersburg art community. He became a permanent member of the New Academy of Fine Arts soon after it was founded by Timur Novikov in 1989. He was first made aware of alternate photographic printing processes while studying in the New Academy. Amongst other photographers such as Novikov, Egelskiy, Alexandrov, Ostrov and other Academy members, Vishnyakov was engaged in reviving precious photo printing techniques widely spread in the XIX century, such as gum arabic pigment print, bromoils, calotypes, chirotypes, carbon process, Savrasov and Sery methods and many others. In 1990 Vishnyakov moved to New York to establish himself as a reporter and then as a fashion photographer and soon got his work published in a dozen of American and European magazines. Soon after, he continued his art education in the New York studio of a French painter, Emmanuel Flipo. Although living as an emigrant, Vishnyakov retained his connections with the Russian art world, especially with the New Academy, and participated in a number of group exhibitions. In 1997 he joined the movement that gathered neo-academics from Moscow and St. Petersburg. His very own established technique is mixed media, combining classical photography, gum arabic pigment printing, tempera painting and printing. The smallest details, such as the peculiarities and nuances of applying an emulsion, with the pressure of brush strokes, or paper texture, give a strange, mystic significance, to his whole work. Photographic details show through and then dissolve in the layers of paint, leaving the image slightly unexposed and the philosophical background unrevealed, impelling the viewer to come back over and over again. Vishnyakov’s work has a feeling of ephemerality, conveying a sense of never being truly finished, leaving the viewer in a truly meditative state. In his never ending reconnaissance of an ideal image of beauty, Vishnyakov is inspired by esoteric and Oriental spiritual practices. Everything finds a place in his art, whether it is Tao doctrine of five elements, symbols of Tarot’s Major Arcana, majestic temples of ancient India or plain netsuke figures. Whatever it is, his major principle is harmony, both inner and outward, spiritual and visual. Vishnyakov also teaches photography in America and Japan, practices kung fu and remains a Shaolin monk’s novice, a practice he has been doing for eleven years. At present he is living between New York and Moscow with his muse, the Russian supermodel, and talented painter, Sasha Pivovarova. SELECTED GROUP SHOWS Beauty of the Beast, Mimi Ferzt Gallery New York Mystical Neo-Realism, Barbarian Art Gallery Passion Bild. Bern Kunstmuseum Bern MIR Faberge, Royal Academy of Arts, London Russian House photography...

Igor Vishnyakov is a Russian Postwar & Contemporary artist who was born in 1968 in Moscow. Igor spent his childhood in Africa and Southeast Asia. After returning to Moscow in the mid-80’s he started painting and photographing key figures of the Russian avant-garde movement, and began to widely exhibit his work. In his youth Vishnyakov became a significant figure in the Moscow and St. Petersburg art community. He became a permanent member of the New Academy of Fine Arts soon after it was founded by Timur Novikov in 1989. He was first made aware of alternate photographic printing processes while studying in the New Academy. Amongst other photographers such as Novikov, Egelskiy, Alexandrov, Ostrov and other Academy members, Vishnyakov was engaged in reviving precious photo printing techniques widely spread in the XIX century, such as gum arabic pigment print, bromoils, calotypes, chirotypes, carbon process, Savrasov and Sery methods and many others. In 1990 Vishnyakov moved to New York to establish himself as a reporter and then as a fashion photographer and soon got his work published in a dozen of American and European magazines. Soon after, he continued his art education in the New York studio of a French painter, Emmanuel Flipo. Although living as an emigrant, Vishnyakov retained his connections with the Russian art world, especially with the New Academy, and participated in a number of group exhibitions. In 1997 he joined the movement that gathered neo-academics from Moscow and St. Petersburg. His very own established technique is mixed media, combining classical photography, gum arabic pigment printing, tempera painting and printing. The smallest details, such as the peculiarities and nuances of applying an emulsion, with the pressure of brush strokes, or paper texture, give a strange, mystic significance, to his whole work. Photographic details show through and then dissolve in the layers of paint, leaving the image slightly unexposed and the philosophical background unrevealed, impelling the viewer to come back over and over again. Vishnyakov’s work has a feeling of ephemerality, conveying a sense of never being truly finished, leaving the viewer in a truly meditative state. In his never ending reconnaissance of an ideal image of beauty, Vishnyakov is inspired by esoteric and Oriental spiritual practices. Everything finds a place in his art, whether it is the Asian Tao doctrine of five elements, symbols of Tarot’s Major Arcana, majestic temples of ancient India, nude figures or plain netsuke figures. Whatever it is, his major principle is harmony, both inner and outward, spiritual and visual. Vishnyakov also teaches photography in America and Japan, practices kung fu and remains a Shaolin monk’s novice, a practice he has been doing for eleven years. At present he is living between New York and Moscow with his muse, the Russian supermodel, and talented painter, Sasha Pivovarova. SELECTED GROUP SHOWS Beauty of the Beast, Mimi Ferzt Gallery New York Mystical Neo-Realism, Barbarian Art Gallery Passion Bild. Bern Kunstmuseum Bern MIR Faberge, Royal Academy of Arts, London Russian House...

Igor Vishnyakov is a Russian Postwar & Contemporary artist who was born in 1968 in Moscow. Igor spent his childhood in Africa and Southeast Asia. After returning to Moscow in the mid-80’s he started painting and photographing key figures of the Russian avant-garde movement, and began to widely exhibit his work. In his youth Vishnyakov became a significant figure in the Moscow and St. Petersburg art community. He became a permanent member of the New Academy of Fine Arts soon after it was founded by Timur Novikov in 1989. He was first made aware of alternate photographic printing processes while studying in the New Academy. Amongst other photographers such as Novikov, Egelskiy, Alexandrov, Ostrov and other Academy members, Vishnyakov was engaged in reviving precious photo printing techniques widely spread in the XIX century, such as gum arabic pigment print, bromoils, calotypes, chirotypes, carbon process, Savrasov and Sery methods and many others. In 1990 Vishnyakov moved to New York to establish himself as a reporter and then as a fashion photographer and soon got his work published in a dozen of American and European magazines. Soon after, he continued his art education in the New York studio of a French painter, Emmanuel Flipo. Although living as an emigrant, Vishnyakov retained his connections with the Russian art world, especially with the New Academy, and participated in a number of group exhibitions. In 1997 he joined the movement that gathered neo-academics from Moscow and St. Petersburg. His very own established technique is mixed media, combining classical photography, gum arabic pigment printing, tempera painting and printing. The smallest details, such as the peculiarities and nuances of applying an emulsion, with the pressure of brush strokes, or paper texture, give a strange, mystic significance, to his whole work. Photographic details show through and then dissolve in the layers of paint, leaving the image slightly unexposed and the philosophical background unrevealed, impelling the viewer to come back over and over again. Vishnyakov’s work has a feeling of ephemerality, conveying a sense of never being truly finished, leaving the viewer in a truly meditative state. In his never ending reconnaissance of an ideal image of beauty, Vishnyakov is inspired by esoteric and Oriental spiritual practices. Everything finds a place in his art, whether it is Tao doctrine of five elements, symbols of Tarot’s Major Arcana, majestic temples of ancient India or plain netsuke figures. Whatever it is, his major principle is harmony, both inner and outward, spiritual and visual. Vishnyakov also teaches photography in America and Japan, practices kung fu and remains a Shaolin monk’s novice, a practice he has been doing for eleven years. At present he is living between New York and Moscow with his muse, the Russian supermodel, and talented painter, Sasha Pivovarova. SELECTED GROUP SHOWS Beauty of the Beast, Mimi Ferzt Gallery New York Mystical Neo-Realism, Barbarian Art Gallery Passion Bild. Bern Kunstmuseum Bern MIR Faberge, Royal Academy of Arts, London Russian House photography...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-ligh...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-...

This is a limited edition Photograph which was originally a photograph of a Boat in a loading dock Marina Del Rey, CA. Howie Ronay finds the beauty thro...

This is a limited edition Photograph which was originally a vintage Chevy Truck. Howie Ronay finds the beauty through everything and uses saturation amon...

This is a limited edition Photograph which was originally a Trash Can. Howie Ronay finds the beauty through everything and uses saturation among other techniques to turn pictures int...