Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art presents an exhibition by Oleg Nikolayenko, an artist revealing the symbolic essence of things and encouraging the viewer to ponder their intrinsic nature
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Luminous, calm, and contemplative art free from superfluous detail and vain pretentiousness
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Visions of flowers, animals, and objects elevated to archetypal simplicity
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A signature take on the Russian primitivism tradition
What happens if one attempts to reduce the complex form of a flower to simple geometric shapes? It will turn into a symbol.
Oleg Nikolayenko is not a naïve artist, even though a superficial look at his paintings invites such associations. The primitivist style of his works results from a deliberate set of self-imposed limitations. This artistic asceticism offers a new perspective on and profound insight into familiar objects.
The painter deals with symbolic forms that dwell in his inner world. Once he commits them to canvas, they acquire a life of their own, different from that of their actual prototypes. Nikolayenko’s style is two-dimensional, with a pronounced preference for local colours – those inherent in objects regardless of lighting, shadows, and overtones. However, it is exactly this simplicity that allows him to capture the very essence of what is pictured.
Nikolayenko shares an affinity with the Russian avant-garde which revisited ancient cultures and folk art, and thus was largely archaic. Upholding the potent tradition of Russian primitivism (that of lubok folk prints, Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova, the Arefiev circle, and the Mitki artistic collective), Nikolayenko manages to stay original and instantly recognisable.
Nikolayenko explores archaic subjects, depicting flowers, objects, animals, and women, and affording substance and solidity to abstract symbols. This inevitably puts one in mind of the poetic remark on middle age by Vladislav Khodasevich:
Yet simple words like ‘flower,’ ‘child’ or ‘beast’
Escape my lips more often than before.
This focus on primary existential notions is indeed essential for attaining wisdom. Such contemplative self-restraint makes one appreciate what truly matters in life:
But then the soul is sweetly made complete
By silent germination of the grain.
Oleg Nikolayenko’s art is wise, calm, invigorating, and devoid of excesses. It encourages the viewer to shake off the shackles of daily preoccupations and join the artist in contemplative reflection.
Oleg Nikolayenko was born in 1964 in Petropavlovsk, North Kazakhstan. Graduating from the secondary art school in his home town, he went on to complete his studies at the School of Visual and Graphic Arts of the Omsk Pedagogical Institute.
In 1987, he took up a studio at Pushkinskaya-10 in Leningrad and became an active presence in the city’s art scene. In 1989, jointly with Yuri Potapov and Rostislav Kurnosov, he founded the Sneg (‘Snow’) artist collective.
Member of the Mural Painting Chapter of the St. Petersburg Artists’ Union since 2000, Oleg started promoting Mansarda Khudozhnikov (‘Artists’ Attic’) art gallery in 2001 in a joint effort with Yuri Potapov.
Nikolayenko’s works were showcased in numerous group and solo exhibitions and acquired for various museum collections in Tomsk, Omsk, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Novosibirsk, as well as by private collectors.
