'Evolution' by Stanislav Plutenko

Hay Hill Gallery is pleased to welcome a new exhibition by the Russian artist Stanislav Plutenko. Represented by Hay Hill Gallery since 2002 and exhibited annually until 2010, Plutenko’s latest exhibition is entitled ‘Evolution’ and as the name would suggest, reflects his personal evolution as an artist.

The majority of the collection centers on paintings from Plutenko’s early career in the 1990’s. Yet the inclusion of a selection of his recent works, which date from 2009 to 2010, enables Plutenko to map his personal progression as an artist. While Plutenko’s work may appear to emerge from a mix of the surreal and the real, while reflecting old West Indian paintings along with the work of artists such as Salvador Dali, his overriding aim is to take the unusual and to make it more so.

Stanislav Plutenko produces vigorous, illustrative works that play on colour contrasts. His original method of painting employs a mixed palette of oil, tempera, acrylic, watercolour, airbrushing and glazing. Plutenko injects his paintings with a sense of sarcasm that is based on reality. While often presented through elements of the grotesque, each painting holds a symbolical underlying theme. Built around a variety of genres the effect of Plutenko’s painting is to reflect representations of the ironic, the sarcastic and the bizarre. A variety of feelings are stimulated in the spectator as each painting is imbued with a small history of life that is replayed through a variety of genre scenes.

Stanislav Plutenko was born in Moscow in 1961. He studied at the Moscow University of National Economy, while taking lessons in painting from private masters. Plutenko created his first works in 1984 and from 1985 to 1990 worked in commercial advertising. During this time he continued to participate in exhibitions, working with ‘Arbat 48’, ‘Artbat 34’ and ‘Mars’ galleries in 1988. In 1991 he joined UNESCO’s guild of graphic artists and was rewarded with the Grand Prix of the ‘Golden Brush’ exhibition in 1997.

In 2007 Plutenko received a rank at the International Academy of Creative Endeavors. The following year he was awarded with an order of ‘Peter The Great’ for his work towards the development of Russian Culture and Arts. In 2009 Plutenko received a Gold Medal named after N. Sats for his ‘outstanding creative achievements in art development.’ Plutenko’s work has been exhibited internationally in Stockholm, Helsinki, USA, Germany and London along with his native Moscow.