Erarta at Ten43 Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition of contemporary Russian art. Born over a span of five decades, the eight featured artists depict the places in Russia where they live and travel, focusing on subjects they find personally meaningful and artistically noteworthy.

The exhibition demonstrates the versatility of contemporary Russian painting. Anastasia Bazanova’s light filled compositions display a sense of immediacy while Olga Bueva captures the salient qualities of her still life subjects in an austere soft translucency. Ruben Monakhov expresses the patchwork nature and complications of contemporary urban living with exterior images of urban buildings void of life and aerial view still lifes. Monakhov’s penchant for choosing scenes of vacant spaces runs parallel to Galina Khailu’s images of personified places sans figures. Dina Bogusnova paints deep reds, almost luxuriating in the freedom of color and form, at times verging on abstraction.

Of the two realist painters, the younger Aleksey Korotenko depicts large animals of different species in an over-crowded environment, holding a mirror up to multiculturalism in a big city. He is juxtaposed with the more mature Valery Valran, whose muted-toned images of eggshells are gracefully suspended in time.

The art is distinctly Russian, personal and eclectic, demonstrating the artists’ intimate understanding and manipulation of visual elements. Singularly and as a group, they capture the zeitgeist of painting in Russia today.