Vladimir Kolosov

Visitez mon exposition virtuelle 3D en cours "Sense of manusia"

New book

New fine art album "Vladimir Kolosov Through the Looking Glass" released at the end of March 2022. This is celebration of Vladimir Kolosov 60 Anniversary and over 45 years of artistic career. The book includes essays and well illustrated. It is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Vladimir-Kolosov-Through-Looking-Glass/dp/1777176506/.

Qureerology - Part I

“QUEEROLOGY – PART I”
STATEMENT.
The present exhibition of contemporary innovative surrealist Vladimir Kolosov is titled “Queerology - Part I”. Queerology is described as a global science about queers and related aspects in social life, creativity and art, history, etc. In other words - science that generates number of questions with respect to almost all aspects of our life. The theme Queerology is very complex and multifaceted. Thus, the artist narrows this exhibition to a few key elements which reflect just a small part of Queerology as a science, but they stand in its foundation. Queerology is ongoing theme in Vladimir’s art, and other parts, dedicated to deeper analysis of its aspects, will come. He believes that Queerology is all about human’s nature, humanity, the true love, relationships, kindness, and creativity.
Having a strong mathematical background, Vladimir has found parallels between the human nature and fuzzy sets theory proposed by Lotfi Zadeh in 1965. This theory is one of the best resources to understand LGBTQ2S+. And some of the artist’s works directly visualise LGBTQ2S+ relationships and psychology using terminology of fuzzy sets.
It is difficult to say when the history of Queer was originated, but there is evidence (art and artefacts) dated 3rd Millennium BCE about same-sex relationships. Same-sex unions were known in Ancient Greece and Rome, Ancient Mesopotamia, in some regions of China, such as Fujian province, and, at certain times, in Ancient European history. Related marital practices and rituals were more recognized in Mesopotamia and North America.
However, during time this inartificial component of the human nature was seriously and dangerously impacted, and continues to be impacted, by the religions and following dogmas.
This exhibition is an invitation to a dialogue. It includes artworks dedicated to the history: “The cult of virility”, “In between of the Nero's romanticism and inflamed conscious (Nero, Pythagoras, and Sporus)”, to creativity: “Swan Lake” (Tchaikovsky), as well as to self-identification, love, and relationships.
The works selected for this exhibition were created in different periods from 2009 to 2021.

"In search of a self - identity" solo exhibition, Vancouver, BC + 3D Virtual, October - November, 2021

"In Search of a Self - Identity"
Exhibition statement

We, from the early childhood, are surrounded by social boundaries and regulations that reflect specificity of the social culture of society where we live. The framework (time, space, and culture) in which we live or better say are placed, thanks to our own artificially invented postulates often contradicts to our nature, which originally laid down into us. This creates the problem: queer vs established frameworks. Nothing stays still and hopefully we can see the positive changes. In fact, we just return to our roots ... if we recall the Ancient Greece, Egypt, Maya, etc.

Both origins coexist in everyone. Apparently, in the vast majority of cases, one of them dominates. And both are in continuous dynamics, with a temporary dominance of one over the other in all other cases. From time to time they may completely substitute each other, and it happens at the level of our subconscious. We can remain in the same body shell, but our conscious and subconscious minds, which ultimately govern us, determine our being in the material world, determine our attitude to the norms adopted in each society. Everything is flexible and continuously changing. Both origins are in constant struggle, internal within an individual and external between an individual and surrounding social culture. Unfortunately, not everywhere established norms allow a person to find their inner self. Because the well-known dogmas, cultivated for centuries, still with very few exceptions, continue to suppress the inner self.

The works presented at this exhibition are essential associations extracted from the subconscious and from the memory of the sensations, feelings, and experiences of an individual who always unlike others felt somewhat strange, in whom others saw just what they wanted to see, but not the reality, and who constantly experiences the internal interaction of the two origins.

VOYZX Exhibition of Contemporary Surrealism 2021

I participate in the VOYZX Exhibition of Contemporary Surrealism (second edition - 2021). It gathered artists working in surrealism from Canada, USA, Portugal, Sweden, and Russia. This is 3D Virtual Exhibition and it can be visited here: https://www.voyzxart.com/voyzx-virtual. The exhibition dates are: July 17th - August 15th, 2021. Catalogue of the exhibition can be viewed and ordered here: https://www.voyzxart.com/publications

Behind the curtain. (Essay written by me about my way in art. Published in the VOYZX Art #7 vol.III, 2020 pp 22 - 28

I often get asked – how do you create your paintings? What is you inspiration? What guides you while you work on a particular art piece? And even - how do you choose your colours? Almost all of the people who ask me these questions admit that they think there is some magic in my creation process. I usually do not unveil what I do and how I do it. The process of creation is
very personal and I limit my responses to questions to just one phrase, which one of the Russian artists told my son:”How I make such paintings? Pretty easy: take the right brush and put the right colour to the right place”.
The same is very true for my work! But above this there is a lot of practice, trial and error, and knowledge - not just about various techniques, but about the world history of art and from old and contemporary masters, and much, much more.

Here and now I’ll make an attempt to uncover this “magic”, I will try to convey to you, the reader, the key elements that are the foundation of my artistic practice, to highlight what is, in my opinion, important for a true artist. However – what makes a true artist? This question becomes meaningful if we admit that we live and work in a world where almost every second person considers himself an artist and almost every fifth - as a great artist. This is thanks to pop-art, which looks very accessible to everyone. A true artist has a call to be an artist. It was, it is, and it will be - this has been the case since
the beginning of history. I have never considered myself an artist whose artworks are just decorative. Fine art is not decor. I remember what one lady said when looking at “Headache” at my exhibition in San Diego. She said: “Nice painting, very emotionaI, colourful. But I wouldn’t hang it in my
bedroom”. This remark can be regarded in two ways. One is certain and is very praiseful, since it means how successful the picture is, how accurately the sensations and experiences are conveyed. The artwork delivers the message, the energy that impacts the viewer. This is about quality of the artwork. Another way clearly states the “quality” of the viewer, her particular perception, habits, and priorities. Naturally, falling asleep and waking up with a headache is not good. Obviously, this artwork is not for decoration - “Guernica” is not either.

When I recall the creation of “Headache”, as well as “Cough” and other “shocking” paintings, I can say that I had a different goal in mind - to reflect the action and the sensations that coincided with it. And the comment
from the lady in San Diego clearly demonstrates that this goal has been achieved.

Every artwork reflects something taken or connected to the reality that surround us, whether it is tangible objects or intangible thoughts, or dreams. And this is not just a direct reflection. The artwork should emphasize
the gist, which may not be quite obvious. Moreover, this is not just about highlighting the gist; an artist should represent it along with its development in conjunction with the dynamics of interactions specific to it.

Interactions are important. I have always found various theories of interactions attractive. Being not only an artist but also a mathematician (I studied the theory of general development and was engaged in biological processes and human aging processes modelling, as well as methods of optimization of non-linear dynamic systems). I had the opportunity to see, describe and explain quite complex processes that were and are happening around us. This is a very unique and seldom opportunity for an artist. It gave me the ability to see the unseen along with the complex tangible and intangible relationships, and moreover, to understand and explain these perceptions. It is like seeing the big picture, not just a small piece.

So when creating a painting I look at objects, whatever they are, from different points of view, to determine and highlight the relationships and interactions between them and to trace their development in space and time.
Such developments are clearly seen in almost all of my artworks, for example, “The Death of Socrates” - the story from the beginning till the end, or “The Groom Lake”, which is actually all about the famous Area 51. I always try to explain my observations using my knowledge of science. On the other hand I do sketches - sort of memory snapshots, or drawings and paintings.
Both mathematics and visual art belong to art, and its combination is very helpful in the creation of artwork. It helps to unfold things that can’t be seen and imagined, although they exist. And their existence is visible only
to those who are enlightened.

The art of any kind implies the presence of harmony. The existence itself is impossible without harmony. The world is changing in space and time from one state to another. It is changing, acquiring one form or another in one of spatial dimensions, with the topology inherent in these spaces. This topology, in other words the rules of interactions, determine both the principles that
create these particular forms and the “behaviour” of the elements, which “live” in each of these specific spaces along with their trajectories of development. Coming back from mathematical abstractions to visual art, it can be said that each painting conveys a certain world, a certain space, which in the best way, from the point of view of the artist, corresponds to the results of research and analysis of what they observe.

Objects and substances of various nature populate these spaces and interact with each other, and with space, over time. These interactions give impulses that can stimulate the viewer’s imagination. Thus, the artist encourages the viewer to think, to analyze the observation, or in other words, he encourages meaningful perception of the artwork. In this case, the artwork remains in the memory of the viewer. This memory returns to observation of the painting and its evaluation again and again - each time focusing on new details and considering different point of view. The artwork begins to “live”
in the mind of the viewer. It starts from the very beginning, when the viewer sees the painting for the first time. This “life in the viewer’s mind” may be developed over time - or it could just fade away. In this sense, an interest
to an artwork is similar to an interest of one person to another. Knowing that, I create my artworks in a way they would touch topics meaningful to the audience. Thus, an artist brings the viewer’s consciousness to the
gist of his observation that he would like to convey.

The picturesque space of an artwork has a certain specificity, or, using the language of music, certain tonality, which unites all the elements of the picture. One of these is the colour palette, which serves not only as
a background, but also to determine the interaction of objects and substances. Colours can be combined into groups and, as a result, form a kind of “alliance”. They may also be “touching”. They can “fight” each other.
In this case we talk about a combination of opposites. The result of such “fighting” is an appearance of a new quality of the depicted objects. This is synergy that determines the dynamics and energy of an artwork. The
painting becomes polyphonic, with clearly outlined interactions Making parallels with music, we can say that such a synergy is in consonance, for example, with musical compositions of A. Schnittke, J. Cage, or F. Zappa.

When speaking of colour “alliances”, I primarily mean the display of states of calm and poise. The world of nature we exist in is balanced and harmonized. So generally, an artwork should be balanced, too. Using the language of development theory, possible outbursts, corresponding to transitions from one quality to another, are nothing but bifurcations. That is, chaotic processes when entropy, which in this case is contradictions
and the necessity of change, has grown so much that the previous balanced state already becomes impossible for further development. This leads to it acquiring a new quality. After stabilization, this new quality with new balance of all forces will remain the status quo for some time. In addition to the specificity of an artwork mentioned above, it is necessary to point out two more key elements that are no less important than colour schemes.
The first element is the line. It determines the shape of the entire space of the painting and all the objects on it.

The line also clearly determines the directions of objects’ interactions. It creates the structure of the pictorial environment, the space where the depicted interactions take place. Objects themselves can be very specific and
concrete, or they can be just symbols, or even fuzzy associations. Whatever they are, they emphasize the gist of the depicted tangible or intangible realm along with its features, and help the viewer focus their attention to it. Like colour, the line reflects development.

The world of nature we live in, the world that fills our conscious and subconscious mind, is a complex self-organizing evolutionary system. This system is characterized by extreme complexity; it is crucial to understand
this in order to provide an adequate description of the system. We should be aware of our existence in this system as just an element, which, in turn, is a certain model, a kind of microcosm. We live in a sequence of multi-layer and multi-dimensional spaces spreading from boundlessness to infinity. In the artistic vision, the canvas is a “window” into this world. This is a “window”
into the space populated by living and inanimate elements along with their interactions, feelings, emotions, consciousness and unconsciousness, connections to other layers - and all of them are directly connected
with the subconscious of the artist.

The second key element is the general composition of an artwork. Composition is very important. An artwork can be “assembled” - or vice versa - it can “fall apart” . If it does it will never come to a state of equilibrium and
therefore will always be incomplete. My experience of other artists’ artworks, and their analysis and evaluation shows that some works, in principle, cannot be completed just because of the immaturity of their compositions - which demonstrates an artist’s immaturity and inability to see, as professionals say, “to have the artist eye”. Composition always catches the eye of the viewer.
Lack of composition, on the contrary, depersonalizes the work, makes it uninteresting and classifies it as just another daub of another “artist”.
An artwork creation to me is a process of learning something new, and at the same time, studying the world. Creating a painting is, in fact, the use of a visual language without philological barriers, a universal language
that is accessible and which can be understood by anyone. The language that can be at the same time quite simple and complex enough. A true artist is fluent in this visual language. He uses it for research, analysis, and description of all forms of appearances of the reality: those that we can touch, and those which we cannot “touch”, i.e. invisible, inaccessible, supposed, intuitive.
In all cases, the visual language of painting helps us to convey our findings and knowledge to our audience. In contrast to the language of words, which actually fixes the state, in which we learn about the development of
events successfully moving from one description to another, the language of painting is different.

An artwork can be divided into parts, or split into layers with each part devoted to one or another phase of the development of the depicted event. This generates the effect of time presence when all phases and dynamics of
an event are assembled and mixed in one canvas. In this case, the viewer discovers new intonations and qualities of the depicted objects, observing an artwork and returning to it again and again. One way or another, an
artwork carries and demonstrates changes and evolution of things discovered by an artist. However... all of us, both artists and spectators, are parts of an ever-changing living world, our perceptions are not always adequate,
but always highly personalized, and therefore, our ideas about the world around us and its visual representations are always ambiguous. Nevertheless, an artist must deliver the message to an audience regardless of what its
attitude will be.

Each time an artist creates an artwork, they brings a bit of themselves into it. They look through the prism of their ideas and each time express their attitude to the topic on which they are working. They have no neutral
fixation of events. Describing what I observed and revealing a related topic, I attempt to give the most complete picture of it, to encourage, the viewer to give an assessment of what is happening. This applies equally to the tangible and intangible. Thus, each my artworks can be considered as a kind of model of life. Artwork creation is a sort of travel through time and space with
the artist passing through various events, substances, conscious, and subconscious, adding their own attitude and modelling life into the space of the canvas.

Today, there is no doubt that our mind, consciousness, and subconscious are connected by the subtlest threads to the Cosmos. This statement to which mankind has been walking for centuries through religious dogmas, is by no means new. The philosophy of the Cosmic Mind and its influence on us goes back to Plato (428/427BC - 348/347BC) in his works regarding the embodiment of the triad in nature and space. Briefly outlined by Plato,
it was systematized and further developed by Plotinus, major Hellenistic philosopher who lived in Roman Egypt (204 AD – 270 AD). According to Plotinus, the triad consists of the dialectics of three ontological substances:
the One, the Mind, and the Soul. Our mind and soul are inextricably linked to our consciousness and subconscious, and dialectics means development in harmony. Pythagoras also put the world harmony into the foundation of the concept of Cosmos.

The ability to change is an important component of any life model. Each time when I work on a particular artwork, one of my goals as an artist is to show the evolution of objects, their variability depending on certain circumstances. But how can this complex philosophical concept be reflected in a painting? Through the dynamics of colour schemes, through the play of lines and through the composition of the work. I have already mentioned these three elements. They play the key role in creative process. An artwork always carries a special energy. This energy can attract the viewer and encourage him to reason. The painting, as we have defined above, is a model of the world where the space of an action and participants of this action are defined along with their roles. They are endowed with unique parameters
that determine the patterns of interaction between them and space.
Each of my artworks is a dialogue with my subconscious. It is always a set of emotional statements about observations and conclusions I’ve made. It is always a kind of re-living of a part of someone’s life, or acquaintance with a new sensation that has not been yet experienced. My hand is driven by the subconscious, I have to “live” and internally feel the depicted. The creative process is always empathetic. Not only to this or that person, it is empathetic for everything that surrounds us, everything that is in the process of its evolution, it is empathetic for the processes of development. Creativity is the
ability to transform, to feel life in the depicted material and spiritual objects. It can be described as the ability to be transported to parallel worlds and stay there for some time. This quality is in some ways consonant to Lucid Dreaming. The only difference is that it does not happen in a dream, but in the process of working on a painting. Creating an artwork requires great emotional and physical effort. When something goes wrong, it can lead
to a nervous breakdown, with subsequent analysis and rethinking of the entire work. Work is always a search for harmony and it is not always an easy way. Everything is involved in the search of the harmony - line, colour, composition, thought, evolution of images, relationships, perceptions, feelings, and much more. At the same time, the work must live - it is like a child to whom an artist gives birth and prepares for adulthood. At the beginning it looks like first uncertain steps, then achieving equilibrium in the transitional motion further.
This balance or universal harmony is the moment when an artwork begins its own life, a life of being a subject of attraction and source of knowledge for people.