Reflection No.IV
Reflection No.IV | Gouache on Paper | 43" x 71"
The concept for this collection of paintings came from my trips to Maine over the last 14 Years. As a traditionally-trained painter, I have done many paintings using a classical approach to landscape. In my recent visits, I wanted to inspect close-up the layers of the familiar land and sea in order to study their most basic nature. Simultaneously, I wanted to ask myself what are the sublayers that make us human? What do the small details look like that make us who we are? As our lives have evolved into sound bites and Twitter feeds we frequently judge others on first impressions and miss the details of who people are. I'm guilty of that as well. I became fascinated with the Cherokee concept that pools of water are portals to another reality. I found this idea interesting and mysterious. I decided to combine paintings of high tide and low tide water that come and go with paintings of pools of water that stay put year round. Formally I was interested in the aesthetic aspect of the micro versus macro views, something that continues to pull me. I remember when I was taking these photographs and doing studies, I thought that those underwater pebble fields looked like NASA’s pictures of the far universe and that those pebbles actually came from those far away places, as all of us might have done. The pools became my portals to the discovery of life's mysteries and my search for balance. -Timur Akhriev
Dealer Comment: Wondrous words that need no help in understanding the depth of Timur and his work. Suffice it to say these pieces, when on the wall, have a riveting effect on literally all who enter our gallery.
Statement
Sometimes I don’t know what my paintings are about when I begin them. Exploration of the formal elements of a composition fascinate me and are often what reveals to me the conceptual impulse. Having lived through many contrasting formative experiences, I am, as if drawn by gravity, attracted to contrast in my paintings, to things that don’t “work” combined together in an image. I let my subconscious guide me towards a visual solution, using the skills I have acquired through the years.
Since childhood, my life was often nomadic and it had a fair share of contrast in it. When I was seven years old I ended up in a war zone which my family and I managed to escape. I grew up with my aunts and an uncle, but without my parents for most of my teens. After living in Russia for eighteen years I moved to the US and have been here ever since. What I paint today comes from my thoughts about my family's dynamics and these major, numerous relocations. I am aware of the contrast between being with one half of a family and then the other, and the contrast between life in a war zone and the total relief of life on the other side of the world.
My early career efforts were primarily objective observations of the world through still life and plein air painting. I am moving towards a more symbolic visual practice, but still using the vocabulary of Realism.
About
Born in Vladikavkaz, the territory where Southern Russia meets Chechnya in 1983, Timur lived with his family until moving from the region during the conflict of 1991. After moving to St. Petersburg Timur began attending the St. Petersburg Iagonson Fine Art School at the age of twelve, where many of the professors studied at the Repin Academy of Fine Arts.
After graduation in 2002, Timur immigrated to Chattanooga Tennessee.
Timur attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga studying in the Fine Arts program. In 2005 to further his education he moved to Florence Italy to study at the Florence Academy of Art and Charles Cicel Studios of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture.
Today, Timur, splits his time between the US and Europe.
Select Exhibitions
The Vendue: Glow, 2019
Florence Academy of Art, 2018
Oil Painters Of America: National Show, 2018
Oil Painters of America: National Show, 2016
Oil Painters of America: Juried Salon Show, 2015
Albuquerque Museum, NM: "Miniatures and More"2014
Repin Academy of Fine Art: Contemporary Realism, 2014
Juried Exhibition, Scottsdale Salon of Fine Art, 2011
Oil Painters of America: National Competition, 2010
Association for Visual Arts, Chattanooga TN
Oil Painters of America: National Competition, 2009
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga TN
Awards
Oil Painters of America National Show, Award of Excellence, Portraiture, 2016.
Plein Air Salon Bimonthly Competition, First Place, 2016
Oil Painters of America Spring Showcase ,Award of Excellence Cityscapes, 2015.
Plein Air Salon Bimonthly Competition, First Place, 2016
Plein Air Bimonthly Competition Second Place, 2014
Association for Visual Arts, Solo Show Winner, 2011
Oil Painters of America, Eastern Regional Competition, Silver Medal, Landscapes, 2010.
University of Tennessee in Chattanooga Juried Student Exhibition ,Best in Show, 2005
