MEET THE PHOTOGRAPHER: Thursday, March 15, 7:30 p.m.
ADMISSION: free
MASTER CLASS: Monday, March 19, 7:30 p.m.
ADMISSION: $30
Dmitry Vyshemirsky is a resident of Kaliningrad. Until the end of World War II it was a city of East Prussia named Kenigsberg. Kaliningrad Region is a cultural landscape which emerged in Europe from a conflicting fusion of German and Russian cultures. The German heritage and today’s reality of his native city is the major focus of the art of Vyshemirsky.
The author attempts to expand the boundaries of traditional genres of photography. He is striving to express by means of the picture the methods he developed himself, to apply a single style throughout the images he has captured, to bring purely photographic and fine art features intimately into synthesis, and – remaining a photographer – to fill up his photographs with a wide range of painting styles.
Photo-documentary project “Post-“ includes colour slides produced exclusively in the Kaliningrad region, during 2004-2006. All photographs were taken using a tripod at a natural eye level without angle, using one camera and one type of film. Having applied this strict method of taking pictures, the author succeeded in scrutinizing everyday life. Balancing on the thin line of trivia, he managed to see a lot of interesting things in this common and ordinary life, and yet created a meditative, philosophical and poetic image of the land in which he lives.
We are open: Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Russian Cultural Center Our Texas presents Musical Evening dedicated to Great Russian singer Feodor Chaliapin.
Feodor Chaliapin is perhaps the most legendary operatic bass in history. Possessed of a large and beautiful voice, he devoted himself to all aspects of his art — most significantly his dramatic portrayals.
Program: fragments of unique documentaries with live Chaliapin, excerpts of audio records 1900-1927 years, exhibit of singer’s portraits, display of books and photo albums about Chaliapin, presentation by Mark Zaltsberg.
Mark Zaltsberg is the passionate lover of opera music and collects the materials about Feodor Chaliapin all his life. He is the owner of the full collection of Chaliapin’s records. For many years Mark was a translator for visiting Russian singers at Houston Grand Opera.
Advanced ticket purchase is recommended as seating is limited.
WHEN: March 12 – August 1, 2010
Weekdays: 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Saturday: 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Opening Reception and the meeting with the artist:
March 11, Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: CaviArt Gallery, RCC Our Texas,
2337 Bissonnet Houston, TX 77005
Admission is free. Works are available for sale.
The photo exhibition “St. Petersburg/Houston: Cities by Touch” is part of FOTOFEST 2010 – international biennale of photography and photo-related art.
Andrey Chezhin lives in Saint-Petersburg and works as a free-lance photographer. He is member of the Russian Fine Art Photographers Union and of International Federation of Artists (IFA). Mr. Chezhin founded the “Autumn Photo Marathon” annual festival (1998-2005). He is director of the “PHOTOimage” gallery and also creator and director of the “Museum of drawing-pin”.
Andrey Chezhin is an author of 60 personal and more than 160 group exhibitions in Russia, USA, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia etc. His works are in the museums and private collections in the USA, Italy, Poland, Russia.
The credo of Mr. Chezhin:
Unpredictability of a photographic process
Conceptuality of photography
Self-sufficiency of photographic means of expression
For information, please call 713.395.3301 or e-mail rcc@ourtx.com
Event Sponsors
This project is funded in part by a grant of the City of Houston through the Houston Art Alliance
“I have been in Cuba, I have been in Havana, I have been there, I’ve seen that, I’ve breathed that air, I talk to people, I drink espresso at the open window of a small coffee shop across from El Capitolio, I even imagine Hemingway drinking espresso at the same place. The shop was very old, I mean, really old: paint of different colors was hanging from the seiling as a tear down paper, thick layer of dust underlining relief and unfinished walls, electrical wires wore chaotically streaming in were different directions like veins on an old miner’s arm. All of that gave me an impression of something very old and alive. That’s it, the coffee shop was alive! And barista, dried, tall and bold mulatto with thick and short cigar butt in his mouth was same age as the shop and the espresso was extremely good. I love that shop and was there every day. But it wasn’t just espresso, it wasn’t barista. It wore layers of time, layers of culture, layers of street noise from loud arguments about baseball and crackling sounds of vintage American cars klaxons caught in a bizarre time warp, to kipping loud silence and importance of twenty years old guardians of the revolution, watching crowds from every other street corners. And suddenly: “There’s someone in my head but it’s not me” as Roger Waters singing. Suddenly I see historical layers of Havana 19 century, layers of a flourishing and fashionable city, a city of theaters featuring the most distinguished actors of the age, vitality and prosperity amongst the burgeoning middle-class led to expensive new classical mansions being erected, layers of a city known as the Paris of the Antilles, layers of 19 century night life with champagne, glamour, courtesans, ebony sky and fresh and thick air where I’m not just breathing it, but bite-out that air. And strangely enough, all these layers slowly sinking on the bottom of the image, became more transparent and faded away, and on a top of it another set of layers fade in, layers of today’s Havana, layers of extreme colors and textures, layers of the city falling into decay, layers of foreign visitors strolling through spectacularly dilapidated streets snapping photographs of the city’s rotting grandeur. It is like in “Photoshop” working with a history brush in reverse order.
In my “Recollection of Havana” portfolio, I tried to reflect this vision, I tried to invoke that magnificent illusion, and wait, it is me in my head, time traveler and prospector contemplator.” Vladimir Frumin
For questions, please call 713-395-3301 or email OurTexasInc@gmail.com
