Traces of Life

Lizards and shells, snails and molluscs – in the picture world of Alexis Gorodine we discover organisms, which – quasi off the evolution – since primeval times remain apparently on the same level of development. Accordingly these creatures are also in the paintings in a strange state of suspension, one moment before petrifying. In their significantly reduced shapes they look almost like fossils, traces of former organisms, on the mineral surface of the canvas. Here we find a special preference of Gorodine, which has its cause in eternal outlasting of these early life forms.

And then humans step into the scenario: Early cave designs come to mind, when a bull head appears only in his outlines on the earth like surface. In the same context the emerging characters are to be seen, cryptograms of a past advanced culture. It is always the beginnings, which interest Gorodine, the beginning of organic life, just as the beginning of human culture.

At the same time his pictures are highly modern, because in the combination of old and new, of figuration and abstraction one discovers fresh novelty: on one hand the pictures seem to be very known for us, they affect a preconscious condition of our consciousness. On the other, the creatures appear often, as if they where coming from our machine world. So in “Glory of the sea” a shellfish can become an imaginary submarine. In addition the pictures with their porous and scratched surfaces remind us of the French Decollagistes and of big-city wall graffitties.

The strength of the pictures of Alexis Gorodine lies in this masterful linkage of the disparate. His pictures radiate archaic peace, they contain the original strength of life. The viewer is invited to set free and win for himself this strength.

1944 – Born in Malicorne, France.

1969 – Ingénieurs studies

1970 – Atelier d’urbanisme, Fort de France Martinique

1972 – Engraving studio Louis Calevaert-Brun in Paris

1974 – 1975 – Atelier Sauve-qui-peut, Paris

1977 – 1982 – Travel in Africa, south and north America

1982 – 1991 – Lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY

1992 – lives and works  in Paris

Exhibitions

2006     

              Espace Kiron,Paris

Contrast Gallery,Bruxelles

Galerie Capazza,Nançay   

2005     

Galerie Claudine  Legrand, Paris

Galerie Dessers, Hasselt, Belgique

Diana Lowenstein Gallery, Miami, USA

Atelier Vanmeenen, ARTendens, Beffroi Bruges, Belgique 

2004     

Galerie BMB, Amsterdam

Galerie Patrick Gaultier, Quimper

2003     

Galerie Gollong, Saint-Paul-de-Vence

Galerie Capazza, Nançau

Galerie Dessers, Hasselt, Belgique

Galerie AVM,

2002     

Galerie Obrist, Essen

Galerie BMB, Amsterda

Galerie AA, Clermont-Ferrand

Galerie Le cercle, Orgeval

Espace St Ernan, Chartres

2001     

Galerie Chantal Mélanson, Annecy

Galerie Vanmeenen, Harelbeke

Galerie Robert Giroud, Grenoble

2000

Galerie BMB, Amsterdam

Galerie Indigo, Damme

Galerie J. Chevolleau, Pouzanges, Vendée

Galerie Vanmeenen, Harelbeke

1999     

Galerie Athena, Courtrai

Galerie Nobel, Oslo

1998     

Galerie BMB, Amsterdam

Messe Zurich

Galerie Asumaro, Tokyo

Temple de Chauray

Hoften Doyer, Zwalm

1997     

   Art Multiple, Düsseldorf

Estampas, Madrid

SAGA, Paris

Images 97, Chartres

Espace Cardin, Galerie Capazza, Paris

Galerie Capazza, Nancay

Galerie Patrick Gaultier, Quimper

1996     

Galerie Grafiekhuis, Brugge

Galerie Asumaro, Tokyo

SAGA, Paris

Galerie van Straalen, Chicago

Galerie Kunstart, Frankfurt

Art 96, Strasbourg

1995     

A Galerie Namy-Caulier, Paris

Foire de Bruges, Brugge

Kunst-Rai, Amsterdam

Galerie BMB, Amsterdam

Hötel Rotschild, Paris

 Collections

Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela

Sala Mendoza, Caracas

Banco Mercantil, Caracas

Galeria de Arte National, Caracas

Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Caracas

Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogota, Kolumbien

Museo de La Tertulia, Cali, Kolumbien

Museo Omar Rayo, Roldanillo, Kolumbien

Brrooklyn Museum, New York

Metro North, New York

Philip Morris Collection, USA

Exxon Collection , USA

Mobil Collection, USA

Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris

Fond National d’Art Contemporain, Paris

Bibliothèque nationale, Paris

Musée D’Annecy

Irving Trust Bank, Caracas