About the artist

One is tempted to search for a familiar shape in an abstract painting. Vaguely resembling urban imagery - outlines of futuristic cars, contours of helmets, horizon lines with skyscrapers' spikes - Kuznetsov's shapes and colours flow, move and intertwine within the space of a canvas. However, the material and medium gain independence in abstract work, becoming subject matter in its equal right. Departing from Gerhard Richter's expressive superpositions of painting, Barnett Newman's colour fields and Pierre Soulages's Outrenoir, Kuznetsov creates a unique body of work, which strikes the viewer with its inner energy. Applying acrylics with giant aluminium rulers, the artist is conscious of his movements: a mechanical gesture, a power of pressure becomes aggravated with meaning. Kuznetsov's process-led abstract painting practice employs a tempered gestural language where fluidity is a defining material concern, and the process of erasure has equal importance to the intuitive application of paint. The artist examines states of presence and remembrance by exploring a tension between control and eventuality.

Painting for Kuznetsov is a constant quest for perfection and reflects his desire to organize the world according to an innate sense of harmony. Kuznetsov does not provide narratives for his abstractions: instead, he sublimates his visions, bringing them to the canvas for the eventual viewer to decipher and identify with. The essence of Kuznetsov's motivation is best described by Sigmund Freud's in Formulations of the Two Principles of Mental Functioning (1911),

"An artist is originally a man who turns out from reality because he cannot come to terms with the renunciation of instinctual satisfaction which it at first demands. [...] He finds his way back to reality, however, from this world of phantasy by making use of special gifts to mould his phantasies into truths of a new kind, which men value as precious reflections of reality." (Freud, 1975, SE, XII: 224).

Alex Kuznetsov was attracted to painting from early childhood years. He became a graphic designer, then discovered spray paint in 1997; thus, he began his journey in the world of street art and graffiti. Signed with the nicknames Liquid, Ners, Awek, Temos and Monk, his crew True Stilo soon became well-known all over post-Soviet territories and Europe. On a visit to a Hong Kong commercial gallery in 2010, an enormous bright-red canvas captivated his imagination and impressed Alex with the power of pure colour. Later in the same year, news of the Moscow metro attack caught Alex on his balcony, staring at five canvases that a friend had left behind. Alex unpacked his spray cans and started exploring a new direction - Abstract Expressionism.

The Fear of the Fog

Exhibition October-December 2022

Exibition catalogue # 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection)

2022: Solo show @ Speerstra Gallery, Paris, France; Solo show @ Woldt Gallery, Hamburg, Germany; 2021Another Output @ Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Russia, 2021; 2020Horizons / Ground Line @ National Centre of Contemporary Art state museum, Minsk, Belarus; 2019Horizons @ DK Gallery, Minsk, Belarus; 2018Liaigre Show @ 5th Avenue Atelier, Moscow, Russia; Variations @ Speerstra Gallery, Bursins, Switzerland; 2015Visual Attractions @ Speerstra Gallery, Bursins, Switzerland; 2014Metalism @ MSK Eastside Gallery, Moscow, Russia; 2013Abstractism @ Speerstra Gallery, Bursins, Switzerland; Abstract Spray Painting @ Montana Gallery, Barcelona, Spain

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)

2022Paper Works @ Speerstra Gallery, Paris, France; Public Art @ Gallery Belyaevo, Moscow, Russia; 2021Moscow - Seoul: Common Ideas @ Museum of Moscow, Moscow, Russia; Pioneers @ Lida Historical and Art Museum, Belarus; House NR.6; 2020Group show @ Lida Historical and Art Museum, Belarus; "The 101" @ Adda Sarto Gallery, Paris, France; Nothing Box@ Basmanny Dvor, Moscow,Russia; 2019Exposición cajita/libro objeto @ Desván Blanco, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain; Border @ National Palace of Art, Minsk, Belarus; 2018Camino Hacia Oriente @ La Recova art center, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain; 2017UPAW @ Prince Albert II of Monaco foundation, Monaco; Mirus Gallery Anniversary @ Mirus Gallery, San Francisco; 2015New Wave Uncut @ MSK Eastside Gallery, Moscow; 2014A Major Minority @ 1AMSF Gallery, San Francisco, USA; 2013ST.Art 2013 European contemporary art fair, Strasbourg, France; Summer Group Show @ Speerstra Gallery, Bursins, Switzerland; 2008Paint Methods, Krasnoyarsk, Russia; Just Write My Name, Saint-Petersbourg, Russia; 2007Write 4 Gold, Chemnitz, Germany; Write 4 Gold, Moscow, Russia; Write 4 Gold, Warsaw, Poland; Graffiti Art group show @ Winzavod Contemporary Art Centre, Moscow, Russia; 2006Street Art group show @ The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia; Write 4 Gold, Warsaw, Poland; Meeting of Styles intl., Chemnitz, Germany; Meeting of Styles intl., Lyon, France; 2005Meeting of Styles Minsk, Belarus; 2004Vodka & Fish Tail @ National Palace of Art, Minsk, Belarus; Meeting of Styles Gomel, Belarus; 2003 Meeting of Styles Gomel, Belarus; 2002Meeting of Styles intl., Anwerpen, Belgium; Meeting of Styles intl., Almere / Amsterdam, Netherland; Meeting of Styles intl., Lodz, Poland; 1999Graffiti 2000, Moscow, Russia

ART fairs

2021Vienacontemporary, Vienna, Austria; Cosmoscow Art Fair, Moscow, Russia; 2020Cosmoscow Art Fair, Moscow Russia; 2017Art Up! Lille, France

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

2022Upcoming @ Pouch Cove Foundation, NL - Canada; 2014Distil Ennui Studio, London, UK

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

2020GUM Redline / Artiq.art / Dostyp.project, Moscow Russia; SVBD.me Interactive Festival / Speaker / Moscow Russia; 2015British Higher School of Art and Design, Moscow, Russia

COLLABORATIONS

2020Vogue magazine, June 2020 / Editorial project, Moscow, Russia; 2017TUMI / Artist Suitcase, Monaco; 2015Idroom Project / Artist Room @ Windsor Hotel, Geneva, Switzerland; 2014Absolut Artist Collaboration for Museum Moscow, Russia; Adidas X Sole Soul, Museum Moscow, Russia; 2006Nike X Faces & Laces, Moscow, Russia

HONORS AND AWARDS

Bridgeman Studio Award, shortlist, 2019
Write 4 Gold Russia, Winner, 2006

BOOKS & MAGAZINES

LE MILE magazine, October 2021; AD Architectural Digest magazine, Dec-Jan 2018/2019, March 2020, March 2021; Elle Decoration magazine, Nov 2018; "Mural Art 1", the Book, Publikat, Germany; "27 Addicts" the Book (Boris Schmelter), Munich, Germany; "Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents" the Book (Nicolas Ganz), Germany; Flofferz Magazine, Summer 2014; Dandylab Magazine, 2009; Molotok Magazine, 2003; "True Stilo" magazine, 2001

KEY PROJECTS AND EVENTS (selection)

2012Standart project, Moscow, Russia; 2006King Ring music label, art direction, Kiev, Ukraine; 200527 Addicts: Graffiti & Design Experiments by Boris Schmelter, Minsk 2003Kofemolka (jury, graffiti contest), Cheboksary, Russia; Meeting of Styles Intl., Gomel, Belarus; 2001True Stilo graffiti magazine, founder

QUOTES

With a history in graffiti, it is easy to see the rhythm with which he applies the paint be a focal part of the painting, but it goes deeper than just movement. Alex is able to effectively use the medium of paint to capture a myriad of elements that the artist would rather not define as representing any image.Graffuturism.com

Artists who have nurtured the interaction with the creative energy present in the nature of street art, hold much potential to transpire their work into the field of fine art. Widewalls.ch

Felicito y recomiendo la visita de esta exposición, deseo destacar tanto la calidad plástica de la obra como el conceptualismo aunado del artista y la galerista, básicamente es sobresaliente. Aspectos como la arrolladora dinámica narrativa y el magistral dominio del trazo sobrepuesto o hiden tras el bastidor son dignos de elogio. Enhorabuena tanto por el planteamiento como por el desarrollo, el momento de los valientes es aquí y ahora, y así es como se desase el antiguo mundo (galeristico). MTN-World.com