Cities and People

This is the title of Kharkiv-based artist Serhiy Alymov’s one-man show recently opened at the Hryfon [Griffin] Gallery.

Serhiy Alymov’s places are almost always his own inventions. Even if there appear some real geographical names, there always are some reservations. Venetian Motifs are in no way city landscapes but rather original fantasias; Japanese Motifs are even more subjective. In most cases the Kharkiv artist gives preference to N City, arousing various literary reminiscences, romantic Unknown Cities, or absolutely fairytale Fishermen’s City.

Alymov’s city is in fact a conglomeration of architecture: historical, modern, but always horribly monumental, with buildings emerging out of each other, sometimes unfinished like the Tower of Babylon, or ruining like Coliseum, but always uninhabitable, dead, and threatening. A small square, where not only city residents came to watch a traveling circus, but also castles and cathedrals, that strikingly resemble some popular gems of architecture, looks rather a lovely joke and rare exception (The Circus).

Serhiy Alymov’s cities are densely populated, though it seems absolutely impossible to live in them. However, the painter’s busy and practical heroes do not necessarily have to inhabit these towers and coliseums: they can simply go there like actors go onstage. In any case, the bustling little men in historical or theater or completely modern costumes fill in the squares and streets of Alymov’s fantastic cities and even the skies above them (The Celestial Office), equally selfless in matchmaking or executions. Some of them are openly grotesque and fearsome, rather than funny, while others are nice and even touching in their own way (The Parting).