Gennady Agafonov. INSIDE OUTSIDE. Compositions from cardboard and paper

Anna Chusova, art critic, curator
Anastasia Zholudeva, curator, art critic, art critic

Collages and applications by Gennady Agafonov, the result of the artist’s work for 2020. Each plot is conditional in its interpretation and therefore universal. From the most commonplace material artifacts - scraps of paper, cardboard sheets and glue, the artist created works that are, in a way, a systematization of his own observations and experience.

INSIDE / OUTSIDE - this is a story about the existence of a person in different spaces. A saleswoman in a grocery store, a handyman at a construction site, a couple on the beach are reflected in the compositions of cardboard and paper. The human habitat is made up of open and closed spaces. These two basic categories are the subject of the artist’s research. Based on the categories inside / outside, the search for oneself and one’s place in the world is carried out. The intimate, warm atmosphere of confined spaces is an area of private and intimate life, our relationship with each other. Behind the threshold of the house is a zone of endless, slightly ordered by civilization, chaos. Moving from the closed spaces of apartments and front doors to the outside world and back leads to the desire to streamline, bring into the system the totality of the impressions received.

The basis of the narration in the works of Agafonov is the composition: laconic, uniting a couple of figures and several spatial elements. In the ripples of uneven contours of paper pieces, expressive, but clear images are born, not devoid of ironic intonation. Smooth, wrinkled, matte, glossy textures make up a tangible material environment. Expressionism as a property and as a trait here as a genetic memory associated with the tradition of the Leningrad school of painting: from the works of the 1920s through the work of dozens of underground artists, in particular, the artists of the Arefiev circle. Unlike painting, collage colors are limited. Here, only the most natural shades find a place for themselves: from blood red to bone white. Generalization technique, closely related to collage and applique techniques,raises the everyday phenomena of everyday life to the level of a metaphor. Why even a minimalistic composition with barbecue becomes an existential reflection on the place of a person in the world around them. Following the heroes of Agafonov’s works, overcoming the monochromaticity of the captured processes of everyday life, one can eventually break out to spaces full of air and freedom. But even here cognition and search do not end there.

Gennady Agafonov was born in 1978 in Leningrad.

Graduated from BSTU "Voenmeh" them. D.F. Ustinova.

Since childhood, he was fond of painting and graphics, actively practiced and improved his artistic skills until the age of 20. After a long break, in 2013 he returned to creativity.

In 2014-2018 he studied painting at a private school for adults, attends classes at an art studio in St. Petersburg. Works in various techniques: pencil and pastel drawing, tempera and oil painting. In 2020, against the backdrop of a global pandemic, he introduces into his creative arsenal working with paper and cardboard, as the most accessible and basic materials for any artist. Begins to work in the technique of collage and assemblage, creates an extensive (over 30 works) series of expressive works devoted to the analysis of human interaction with open and closed spaces.

Since 2019, the works of Gennady Agafonov have been presented in the Artists’ Mansard Gallery.

2019 - group exhibition "Day One" in the Central City Public Library named after V.V. Mayakovsky.

2020 - participation in the St. Petersburg International Fine Arts Fair "Come in large numbers" at Expoforum