Regina Gallery is pleased to present a new project from Aleksey Kallima called Psy. A spectacular installation of a massive scale – 500 x 5500 сm – will fill the walls of the gallery during the run time of the exhibition.
The work Aleksey Kallima is presenting at Regina Gallery has fully abandoned any narrative, any political, social and other zeitgeist. The work painted by rolling-on on the 50 x 5 m wall is done in acrylic paint on vinyl (banner fabric). It is called PSY. This is the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet. It is a part of the root of such words as 'psychology', 'psycho', 'psychiatry'. It is a part of the name Psyche. That is, this letter is responsible for the soul department.
The name Psy is matched by a 50-meter work depicting a deep deep forest. It is not based on a visually pleasing perspective. It does not depict sun lit meadows. Squirrels and bears are not frolicing in a pine wood. Carvel pines surround you from all sides in an imminnent and adamant manner. There are only hordes of tree trunks at the eye level. Emerald-violet palette is echoed by some hallucinatory visions. Kallima claims that if he hadn't become an artist he would end up a botanist. He is still upset about the outrageous attitude Russians show towards nature. Indeed, Russian forest is a die-hard down-and-outer compared to European forest. You want to get it out of your mind – but it's always in your face. Kallima is forcing us to face this forest square. Perhaps, we are its prisoners?
Sergey Khachaturov
