
Ilya Volykhine

Sewing Table $5,950 Status: Available
We are pleased to invite you to meet Ilya at the opening reception of his upcoming exhibition
‘Table of Contents’ – Ilya Volykhine
Thursday 2nd November 5-7pm
rsvp: ron@exhibitionsgallery.co.nz
The humble table is a ubiquitous object that is often overlooked. But for me, the table is a source of endless fascination. It is a place where we come together to eat, to talk, to laugh, and to cry. It is a place where we share our lives with others.
In my paintings and works on paper, I explore the many different ways in which the table can be used and experienced. I see the table as a symbol of connection, community, and tradition. It is a place where we can be ourselves and where we can feel truly at home.
I am excited to share my new exhibition, Table of Contents, with the people of Wellington. I hope that my paintings will inspire viewers to reflect on the important role that the table plays in our lives.
Emerging from behind the iron curtain, my paintings, and works on paper, capture the underlying forces that dominate and determine the conditions of the human psyche.
I have been told by my favourite auntie that as a 2-year-old kid I sat on the pavement outside my parent’s house with my feet in the gutter digging with a broken stick. I liked scraping and scratching at the dirt, she said I found it soothing.
Aged 5, I was dragged kicking and screaming into school. I didn’t like being there. The place was petty, cold and heartless. The only times I felt at all within myself was when we had morning play or did painting.
We made pictures with the powder paints; mixing the colours soothed me. This is what I’ve kept on doing (and have always protected within myself ) even when I was working shuffling asphalt in our small town before I left for America.
Art has always been what I go to. This uncompromising streak is how I have aligned myself with the universe: It is very simple and ordinary because it is nothing more than expressing my nature: I’m an artist and doing what I’m meant to be doing: I believe that art can be defined as line and form coming through the hand – the head, and even the heart, somehow have to get out of the way.