Demyan Lenkov. Exhibition "City of Zero"

The town is like an old washed-up tablecloth: gray in brown spots - either from French wine or from borsch. Shabby house. A drainpipe is a curvuline without a pair of knees. The shutters rickety, the balconies hover on parole. Porch - the stool of the hanged man, the door - the raft of the doomed. To come in?

The question is rhetorical. No entry is not possible. This leads to curiosity, multiplied by the belief that this does not happen. In the works of Demyan Lenkov is absolutely not scary. The artist immediately makes it clear all the conventions of what is happening - like in a fairy tale or in a puppet theater. The atmosphere of fabulousness does not leave, and therefore every plot, any detail of the picture becomes a real gift for the viewer who can appreciate it. And the author rubs his hands and generously multiplies entities (after all, 4 years of the Ural Polytechnic University) - he pulls out God’s coffee grinders of all stripes, watches with a double set of hands, old-mode electric tiles, alarm clocks, transistors, artful assembly locks, barrel-grinders, wonder cars, steam locomotives electrical theater, finally…

Favorite materials Demyan Lenkova - wood and iron. It is possible that the magic of his work is explained by this. After all, each board or iron sheet that the author uses as a canvas has a biography. Combining with the paint the history of the former patch of a metal garage or board, which was clogged with a door to the basement of an already demolished house, the artist launches some special mechanisms. Even when the supplies of “biography material” are running out and the artist has to turn to plain paper, the sheet with the help of putty, glue and something else no less magical turns into parchment or papyrus, acquiring a solid age and some the mysterious "homelessness."

About 20 years ago, the historian and commentator of alchemical texts Oleg Fomin-Shakhov noticed Demyan Lenkov’s interest in hermetism, believing that “his paintings in twilight red-brown tones could serve as illustrations for Lovecraft or Meyrink, if not for the author’s implicit smile ".

The author and his works created over the past year can be found in the Alpert Galley on February 8, 2017 inclusive.

Demyan Lenkov is a resident artist at Alpert Gallery. Born in 1968 in Yekaterinburg. He studied with the Ural Polytechnic Institute, at the graphic arts department of the Nizhny Tagil Pedagogical Institute. Repeatedly participated in exhibitions in Russia and Ukraine. In the late 90s - early 2000s, he was actively exhibited in the United States and France. Member of the project of Alexander Glezer "Children of Perestroika" (1998, USA, New York). Works are in corporate and private collections in Russia, USA, France, Germany, Canada and other countries. Lives and works in Moscow. Collaborates exclusively with Alpert Gallery.