The Russian Academy Of Arts

Within the framework of the Year of Spain in Russia and the Year of Russia in Spain the Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts and Angel Orensanz Art Foundation (Madrid, Spain) under the auspices of the Spanish Embassy in Moscow and General Consulate of Spain in St. Petersburg present a multi-media exposition of the renowned Spanish artist, sculptor and film director Angel Orensanz. Entitled “20 Years in Russia” the show highlights the artist’s graphic works, installations, video art, “Preserved Through Times” photo series.

Angel Orensanz is a participant and winner of the most prestigious forums of contemporary art. His creative biography is extremely rich, his works have been exhibited in major museums in cities of Western Europe, the United States, Japan, Russia.

In 1991, Orensanz for the first time displayed his works in Tallinn (then in the Soviet Union). In 2003, Angel Orensanz together with Michael Shemyakin were invited to take part in the Art Festival in honor of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. Since then, almost annually his installations, graphic sheets and photographs have been on show both in St. Petersburg and Moscow – in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, A. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the Hermitage, the Russian Museum and others.

In 2008 Angel Orensanz was elected an Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

In the world art space Orensanz is a distinguished representative of post-modernism thinking. The creativity is the most important, the time, place and material depend on circumstances and the artist’s psychological mood.

Orensanz prefers to work in a big space and especially in the open air landscape – in streets of cities or natural environment. Having a powerful energy of a creator, literally obsessed by the art, he strives to share the results of his enthusiastic keenness on the process of creation with his viewers. He likes to decorate the nature, to organize space according to the artist’s will. The most distinct for works by Orensanz are such definitions as expression, inner tension, dynamics.

Art objects in the urban environment and in the world of nature, their coexistence are one of the most significant themes in his work. It is simple, but conceptually multisided. The correlation and interaction of two realities - an art object and a landscape space, their harmony and contrast, their changeability in the natural manifestations of the elements create a new art reality. In his constructions, even the most destructive, there is a highly complex figurativeness and philosophical implication.

His materials are snow, flowers, fabric and paper, that unfortunately are doomed to a short existence. That is why the artist makes video and photographs of his works, where they obtain a long life.

Over 20 photographs on display demonstrate Orensanz’s objects produced by him in various years and various countries. The exhibition is also accompanied by non stop video materials showing the artist’s fantasies and performances.

In his graphic works perceived as a flow of the artist’s reflections expressed by movements of pen or pencil every viewer will find his or her own subtext and allusions.

The artist’s installations at the Academy Museum in St. Petersburg are dedicated to “the Great” in Spain and Russia.

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