10 Chancery Lane Gallery is thrilled to announce the representation of Macau-Based Russian artist Konstantin Bessmertny and the launch of his newest series of paintings entitled STIR FRY.
Bessmertny is a child of the crossroads, born in the Russian-Chinese border town of Blagoveshchensk and moved to Macau with his wife Gala in 1994. Educated in the Vladivostok Academy of Fine Arts in classical painting he is trained in the skillful mastery of European traditional painting that he chooses or chooses not to use at will. Very well read on many subjects, his works traverse between philosophy, politics, theology, art history and music. However, these subjects are just devices to arrive at something deeper, which is his cutting insight and observations of human behavior as a parody of life.
In his newest series of works entitled “STIR FRY” Bessmertny traverses our connected and disconnected worlds between East and West within the backdrops of European settings. Within a stir fry the elements are still distinguishable. They don’t melt together as in a stew. They remain as distinct items within a contained vessel. Bessmertny likens his life living in Asia with the diversity of peoples and cultures all within the global city of Hong Kong to a Stir Fry. The English, the Scots, the Cantonese, the Mainlanders, the Japanese, the Russians, the Koreans, etc. make for an interesting mix of both global exchanges set within very traditional cultures that can be both nationalistic or clinging to traditional cultural expressions. This may be considered as the forms in which traditional culture is expressed, how it forms part of the identity and heritage of a traditional community, as well as how they are passed down from generation to generation. Within this series Bessmertny touches upon the Scottish Referendum, the Hong Kong protests, the American ideologues all intertwined within a parody of provocative thoughts and ideas. Bessmertny’s paintings have the appeal of a grandiose Baroque masterpiece yet the cutting edge of a modern-day samurai. He touches on many a taboo subject yet the works still hold an air of traditional elegance.
Katie de Tilly, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery director states, “Bessmertny is both a great painter as well as an engaged intellectual. Through his brush he dives into his topics with such force and depth that the narrative takes days or years to unravel, not only the obvious jests but the hidden labyrinth of underlying sarcasm that he deftly sinks into hidden pockets within his paintings. I don’t think anyone has cracked all the codes that exist within his works. They are a modern day puzzle of painted mastery.”
Konstantin Bessmertny represented Macau for the The 52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Previous exhibitions include: 365, A Work a Day, the Museu Fundacao Oriente, Lisbon, Portugal (2014), Crossroads · Another Dimension: the Cross-Straight Four-Regions Artistic Exchange Project 2013, Imaginary Belongings – Macau Contemporary Art, Museum of the Orient, Lisbon, Portugal (2011), Hong Kong City Hall, Hong Kong (2014), Museum of Art, Macau, China (2012), MONUMENT TO ANYONE (Monumentum pro aliquis), installation and performance at Fringe, da Cidade de Macau, Macau, China (2009), Recent Works, The Museum of Art, Macau, China (2007), The 52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2007), XIX Asian Art Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Fukuoka, Japan (2005), XVIII Asian Art Exhibition, Heritage Museum, Hong Kong, China (2003), XIV Asian Art Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Japan (1999), Contemporary Asian Art Exhibition, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong (1997)
