VIKTOR SAFONKIN
VIKTOR SAFONKIN I enjoyed drawing, as all childern do. Understanding my surroundings was still far a way, but there were smells and feelings, huge rats and headaches. It was another life strongly influenced by nature. I had been watching and examining for a long, long time, before all of this shaped itself, after many years, into conviction and painting. It all surfaced from subconsciousness ? In the mean time I finished secondary school and begun studying technical school, where I gained secondary education. It gave me nothing, and did not fill even a little area of my brain hemispheres. I was feeling useless. Rationalism and routine, however, would have finally suppressed the psychedelic fever and wouls have feeded my minority complexes, if it was not for the striving of my subconsciousness. Taking its roots in the childhood it bursted the frontiers of banality. 1990 was not only the year of sun eruptions, but also of my brain. My heart confessed to me and opened the gate of creativity. I crossed it, forever, without looking back, with no doubt, lost for shadow and disbelief !!!
„Far too much modern art is intellectually vague, emotionally sterile, abstract and conceptual.. and successful only in failing to deal with the fears, joys, and anguish of our lives. In contrast, Viktor Safonkin‘s art confronts the human condition head on with powerful mythic images all sumptuously rendered in an unapologetic classical style that reaches back into an ancient past to rub shoulders with the likes of Brueghel and Bosch.“
Terry Gilliam
„Safonkin, on the other hand, is a man of our day, with its new, changed conditions for the creative work of artists. He does not adapt Verism, but uses it as the basis for his own style. The world to which he introduces us is also a world of visions – but visions that are true for the 21st century. The astonishing aspect is that he uses means derived from previous periods to implement his concept. Safonkin is a painter, who creates a visionary world in the traditional manner, with paintbrush and canvas, with glazing and trompe l‘oeil, and thus conjures a world that is in direct competition with cinema, video installations or computer animation. Yet he can hold his own in this comparison because he is a master at his art. Safonkin convinces by means of the stunning materiality of his paintings. Iron appears like iron; the depicted heat and cold are almost tangible. It is not only the colour, it is the suggestive power of the colour that creates or reinforces these impressions – in short the beholder feels drawn into this world of images in a synesthetic manner and experiences a visionary power that is difficult to withstand. In this universe, our intellectual distance provides only scant protection. It is the cosmos of our nightmares and wildest dreams. Upon waking up, we can hardly believe that the chimeras we saw in our dreams exist in real life; yet we know that the emotions that gave birth to such dream images are within us. These dream apparitions represent strong feelings that have a much greater impact on our behaviour than we would like to admit.“
Dr. Phil. Helmut Orpel, art critic, Germany
Safonkin‘s paintings sometimes carry a sarcastic note – not about the art itself in order to distance himself from the employed techniques and the central message of his work. His visualised sarcasm is directed at the absurdity of life. Whenever he consciously proceeds in a hitoricist and eclectic manner, he seeks to create an assimilation with contemporary issues and reveals a creative commitment to a critical iconographic traditon. Exaggeration, caricature and alienation are the proven means to unmask an unsettled, upside-down world – yesterday like today.“
Dr. Phil. Olaf Muckain, Curator of the Heylshof Museum, Head of Niebelingenmuseum, Germany
SOME OF EXHIBITIONS 1997 – 2000 | permanent exhibiton in Prague, Czech Republic – „Jakubska“ gallery 2003 | an individual exhibition in Nicosia, Cyprus – residence of private collector 2003 | a joint exhibition in Utrecht, Holland – „Paradijs“ gallery 2004 | a joint exhibition in Vienna, Austria – „Ernst Fuchs“ gallery 2004 | a joint exhibition in Going, Austria – Hotel Stanglwirt 2004 | a joint exhibition in Riegersburg, Austria - Barockchloss 2004 | a joint exhibition in Las Vegas, USA – „Morpheus“ gallery 2005 | a joint exhibition in Castle Voergaard, Denmark 2005 | a joint exhibition in Paris, France – „Michelle Boulet“ gallery 2005 | a joint exhibition in Regensburg, Germany – „Artaffair“ gallery 2006 | a joint exhibition Trophée Apocalypse Dore 2006 | a joint exhibition in Le Mont-Dore, France 2006 | a joint exhibition in Regensburg, Germany – „Artaffair“ gallery 2007 | a joint exhibition in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium 2007 | personal exhibition in Gruyeres, Museum H.R. Giger, Switzerland 2008 | a joint exhibition in Berlin, Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Germany 2008 | a joint exhibition in Dreamscape Exhibiton, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2008 | an individual exhibition in Los Angeles, Merry Karnowsky Gallery, California, USA 2009 | Artery – Miami, art-fair in Miami, USA 2010 | a joint exhibition „Dreamscapes“ in Amsterdam, Holland 2010 | a joint exhibition „IPAX 2010“ in Viechtach, Germany
SOME OF EXHIBITIONS 2010 | a joint exhibition „Tample of visions“ in Los Angeles, California, USA 2010 | a joint exhibition „Metamorphosis“ show, Copro Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA 2010 | an individual exhibition Hotel Mandarin Oriental in Geneve, Switzerland 2010 | an individual exhibition Mimesis Gallery in Geneve, Switzerland 2011 | an individual exhibition in The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia 2012 | an individual exhibition in the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts,Ukraine 2012 | an individual exhibition in Heylshof Museum, Worms, Germany 2013 | a joint exhibition in the State Russian Museum, Saint Peterburg, Russia SAFONKIN WAS PRESENTED AS A MAJOR ARTIST OF VIMM GALLERY ON CONTEXT ART MIAMI, LA ART SHOW AND SCOPE NY IN 2013 AND 2014.
CONTACTS Opening hours Sun – Mon Tue – Sat Karlova str. 12, Prague 1 110 00, Czech Republic
Ilja Valko Mobile Gallery
+420 605 982 857 +420 222 220 696
e-mail:
iljavalko@gmail.com
closed 11:00 – 17.00 (mostly by appoinment)