Aleksander Pogorzhelskiy

We
are surrounded by things and
People. These
And those torture the eye...

(I. Brodskiy)

Aleksander Pogorzhelsky received a vary “classical” Russian education in the
field of fine art at the Surikov School of Art and the Surikov College of Fine Art.
Nevertheless, he did not remain in the tradition of realistic painting. Unexpected
perspectives, his own unique method of work, motifs that often show a cross-
section of youth culture: all these are essential components of Pogorzhelsky's painting.

In his poetic series Seasons, although the artist shows us only the
apparently everyday motif of quenching one's thirst, both the change of the
seasons as well as the relations between people can be understood: from
loneliness through a simple encounter to a friendly relationship. The repeated
action intensifies the feeling of timelessness: “what was will also be”. The sun
shines through the bottom of a plastic cup, the nose looks like a mountain — a
coincidence of global and significant natural events with private, chance life
situations is one of the essential features of Pogorzhelskiy's painting. Through
the artist's intense interest in the object and for detail, his work achieves a level
at which every moment of our existence is perceptible.

Observing the series Poison gives rise to mixed feelings. On the one
hand there is irony, on the other a feeling of emptiness, like after a catastrophe.
An unusual perspective of the representation of a man spraying pesticide. The
sprayer becomes an instrument of death, the result of his work can be seen in the
work The Fly.

The penetrating and searching gaze of the artist repeatedly gives the
observer the impulse to appreciate the powerful feeling of the “here and now”.

Written by
Asya Silaeva,
for “Russia fly by”
Salzburg 2006