Looking at Nikita Alexeev’s work is like playing an endless game of Chinese whispers. Until he died five years ago, he was a highly active part of this process of interpretation of his own paintings, drawings and other conceptual works. His probing mind was remarkably gentle, but he never masked his robust resistance to unthinking acceptance of the thought processes of the day. His legacy is strong, as he left art works that lie in the earth like mines waiting to be trod upon.
The concertina drawing in this exhibition is the key to an understanding of Alexeev’s words and images, and how they work and don’t work together. The concertina unfolds like a game of consequences as we the audience are left running to find how one image leads to another. He demonstrates his precision with words and images, as he actually did not call this drawing a concertina, but referred to it as a Leporello. Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant, was proud of his long line of lovers that adorned his sleave like a book that unfolds to play as an accordion. Alexeev’s work has an operatic feel to it. The building bricks of his world, words and images, come together in a gloriously exaggerated style that can easily be read, but is open to never-ending interpretations.
Alexeev lived in his head; his mind was invariably whirring and purring away with countless options. There is an echo of Pop Art in his selection of objects given prominence in his pictures. He elevates basic things one might find hidden around a house like a packet of Tide Washing Powder or a plastic bottle of Rol Liquid Laundry detergent and elevates them into starring roles in his land/seascapes. A pair of nail scissors transforms into a flying bird and a rock above the word ‘Stoned’ has faint markings on its sides that shows it is an outsized dice. Pointillist canvases fit together like a jigsaw, with the colours and words being the connectors. The most Pop series of them all goes under the glorious label ‘Pops, Bubbles and Songs.’ The text on one happy blue one reads: ‘Freedom is just another word for nothing left to Lose.
Looking at Nikita Alexeev’s work is like playing an endless game of Chinese whispers. Until he died five years ago, he was a highly active part of this process of interpretation of his own paintings, drawings and other conceptual works. His probing mind was remarkably gentle, but he never masked his robust resistance to unthinking acceptance of the thought processes of the day. His legacy is strong, as he left art works that lie in the earth like mines waiting to be trod upon.
The concertina drawing in this exhibition is the key to an understanding of Alexeev’s words and images, and how they work and don’t work together. The concertina unfolds like a game of consequences as we the audience are left running to find how one image leads to another. He demonstrates his precision with words and images, as he actually did not call this drawing a concertina, but referred to it as a Leporello. Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant, was proud of his long line of lovers that adorned his sleave like a book that unfolds to play as an accordion. Alexeev’s work has an operatic feel to it. The building bricks of his world, words and images, come together in a gloriously exaggerated style that can easily be read, but is open to never-ending interpretations.
Alexeev lived in his head; his mind was invariably whirring and purring away with countless options. There is an echo of Pop Art in his selection of objects given prominence in his pictures. He elevates basic things one might find hidden around a house like a packet of Tide Washing Powder or a plastic bottle of Rol Liquid Laundry detergent and elevates them into starring roles in his land/seascapes. A pair of nail scissors transforms into a flying bird and a rock above the word ‘Stoned’ has faint markings on its sides that shows it is an outsized dice. Pointillist canvases fit together like a jigsaw, with the colours and words being the connectors. The most Pop series of them all goes under the glorious label ‘Pops, Bubbles and Songs.’ The text on one happy blue one reads: ‘Freedom is just another word for nothing left to Lose.
Alistair Hicks