Comments by Olga Merkusheva for Origin of Species catalogue, 2006

Alexander Pogorzhelsky represents the generation of
young Moscow artists who have received academic art
education, but are active on the contemporary art scene.
Pogorzhelsky’s works that follow the traditions of the
Moscow school of painting emphasize realism. But the
realism of his painting is formal, it is but a method to present
material. The creative work of Pogorzhelsky is focused on
the peculiar marginal zone of being, and his concentration
upon it is reflected in the visual and topical choices of the
artist. His perspective, not quite characteristic for the
tradition of painting, reveals the artist’s attempts to grasp
and register the fleeting moment of life in its focusing upon
the object and accentuation of fragmenting in composition.
His self-portrait with a plastic cup is a part of a self-portrait
series that gives a clear outline of experimental tendencies
in the creative work of Alexander Pogorzhelsky.
The Inside series manifests quite a different tendency.
Without breaking up with fragmenting, the artist depicts
mechanic entrails of the computer achieving a metaphysical
effect. Like a surgeon, he dissects the mechanic reality of
a gadget cutting out only those visual images he wants his
viewer to see. Intangible presence of the human being
remains off-screen, just as the French metaphysical
philosophers have it in their works.

Olga
Merkusheva 2006