Alexey Vaulin. Living Substance

Alexey Vaulin stands out as one of the most vibrant and consistent purveyors of contemporary abstract art on the Russian art scene. This exhibition spotlights around 50 of his works, spanning his career.

Vaulin’s works have been featured in art exhibitions since 1999, the most consequential of which being Moscow Abstraction. Latter Half of the 20th Century and Abstraction in Fashion, both held at the State Tretyakov Gallery in 2003.                       

Vaulin made a bold statement in the 1990s with his colour-driven figurative landscapes and still lifes (The Colour Lemon, Mask). His works gradually lost their figurative character over time, and colour – in the role of a form-creating starting point – began to suffuse the entire space of his canvases, manifesting its texture and plasticity (Red, Dedication to Velimir Khlebnikov). Vaulin’s interest in the theme of Cosmism took his painting to an entirely new level with works such as Cosmos and Cosmic Prism, in which the artist explores unique takes on cosmic structures and ideas of colour and form. The dense white colour that absorbs reflections from adjacent colour masses would emerge as his signature method in the years that followed (Fog, Festive Cupolas). In the past decade, Vaulin’s painting has demonstrated accelerating dynamics and expressiveness, along with a great diversity of subjects and motifs (Poseidon, About the Moon).