Vladimir Lyubarov. The Land of Peremilovo. Oil Paintings of Russian Origin

A solo exhibition of works by Vladimir Lyubarov will showcase around 70 paintings from various series which the artist has been working on since he moved from Moscow to Peremilovo village, the Vladimir Region, in the early 1990s. Lyubarov, who used to be a well-known book illustrator, art director of the “Khimiya i Zhizn” (Chemistry and Life) magazine and “Text” publishing house, is now a painter of the Russian far-flung province and its inhabitants. His scenes from popular life could make up a reference book for the study of the national character. They have already become a source for contemporary fables, theater plays, and animated films. Vladimir Lyubarov’s world of images is both real and fantastic at the same time. This world, brought into being by the artist’s creative imagination, is full of recognizable details and, in the meantime, quite spiced up with some grotesque humor, as in the best traditions of the Russian popular print, lubok. In Lyubarov’s work, subtle psychologism and attention to detail are artfully combined with the ingenuous expressiveness of naïve art and high professionalism of a skillful painter.