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PCC Exhibits Contemporary Russian Painters
Photos and story by Mark Evertz
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Northview Gallery at Portland Community College will feature the work of five Russian painters, three of whom still live in Russia. The artists are Alexander Gorendsteine, Andrei Karpov, Alexander Petrov, Lev Povzner, Nikolai Sahzin. The work is being shown courtesy of the Davidson Galleries in Seattle. Owner Sam Davidson travelled to Russia in 1989 and became familiar with many artists whose work had not been seen outside of the former Soviet Union. Davidson then exhibited several painters the following year in conjunction with the Goodwill Games.
Of the five, Alexander Petrov’s work has become the best known. His paintings are exhibited internationally and have been shown in Europe, New York and Hong Kong. Of his work, Seattle critic Lynn Smallwood said, "Petrov paints small, mysterious pictures populated with bald men, nude women, dogs, elephants, blighted trees and other ominous props, in a diminutive old-master style wholly anomalous to contemporary American art Petrov’s rich textures and colors, his minutely imagined characters and his frequent allusions to dark, sexually loaded narratives make his work irresistible to a wide audience."
All five artists work in a technically refined manner with exacting brushwork and saturated colors.