Genia Chef: Glory of a New Century

📘 The solo exhibition of Genia Chef presents the creative oeuvre of the well-known master of contemporary art who was born in the Soviet Union and from 1985 works in foreign countries (Germany, Austria, the United States of America, Spain). The exposition includes the paintings, light-boxes and installations presenting the original re-comprehension of the canons of the historical genre that had a leading place in the system of the official Soviet art. Genia Chef who received the professional artistic education in the Soviet Union combines in his works the academic manner of painting with the expressive means of the newest electronic technologies that he had mastered during the study in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (1988-1993). The author constantly accentuates the absurdity of content in his works where the images of the Revolutionary leaders, classics of the Russian literature, ancient gods and heroes, pre-history animals and buildings of different epochs are paradoxically combined. Using the expressive means of the Social-art, Fantastic Realism of the Vienna School and the leading artists of surrealism Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, Genia Chef strives to the ironic reflection of the historical process that had lost any logic and meaning and is open for the artist's and viewer's free and playful interpretation.