Over a 10-day period the artist will live and work at WHITE BOX transforming the gallery space into a living studio. In the spirit of a “Happening” Kallima will create a 360-degree mural drawing. The public is invited to view his work-in-progress beginning March 10th. Alexey Kallima is of Russian descent, born and raised in Chechnya. At the age of twenty- five he fled from Chechnya to Russia because of the volatile political situation. His art is a chronicle of his experiences and those of his fellow Chechnians. He works with ephemeral materials, fleeting substances such as charcoal and florescent dye to create works with a simplicity and inner force. Kallima is an artist fully engaged with the complexities of contemporary Chechnya in what can be described as a poetics of disaster, reminiscent of Goya. The Russian newspaper “Kommersant” has called him “one of the most promising contemporary Russian artists”