Konstantinova (Alexeev) Maria Mikhailovna

1953 born in Moscow
1980 graduated MGHI them. Surikov (Faculty of Painting, Department of Theater)
since 1983 member of the Municipal Committee of graphs
1993 member of the USDA
Participation in exhibitions and auctions

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1992 One-day exhibition at the Kuznetsk bridge. Moscow

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1977-87 Exhibitions Association of young artists in the halls of the USSR Union of Artists. Moscow
1986 XVII Exhibition of Young Artists. Artist's House at Kuznetsky Most, Moscow
1987 First Exhibition of Avant-gardists Club (CLAVA). Peresvetov Lane., Moscow
1988 Second Exhibition of Avant-gardists Club. Peresvetov Lane. Moscow.
1989 "Expensive Art. Youth Palace, Moscow
"Inexpensive Art". First Gallery, Moscow
New Jerusalem (exhibition-action). Club of the avant-garde New Jerusalem, Moscow Region.
"Perspectives of Conceptualism". Peresvetov Lane., Moscow
1990 "Woman as object and subject of art". Kashirka, Moscow
ART MIF 1. HEAD House of Artists, Moscow

"The Work of Art in the Age of Perestroika". Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, USA
"Shizokitay". Avant-gardists Club. Exhibition Pavilion on Frunze Embankment, Moscow
"Inspiration. Junge Kunst in Europa ". Hannover, Germany
"Worker". Exhibition Hall, October, 26, Moscow
1991 "Bad Souvenirs" (with N. Kozlov). First Gallery, Moscow
"ART MIF 2". Manege, Moscow
"Visit". Peresvetov Lane., Moscow
"Mother-to-space. Propeller Gallery, 100 Profsoyuznaya St., Moscow
"Novecento". L Gallery. Central House of Artists, Moscow
"MANI Museum - 40 Moskauer Kunstler im Frankfurter Karmelitenkloster". MANI. Frankfurt, Germany "Perspectives of Conceptualism". The University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Honolulu; Clocktower Gallery, Public School 1, New York, USA
"Art Messe". Frankfurt, Germany
1992 "Heart of four". House officers, Moscow
1992-93 "Perspectives of Conceptualism". North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, USA
"Humanitarian aid parcels for Germany. 27 Moscow Artists ". HEAD House of Artists, Moscow; "Humanitare Hilfe, Packchen fur Deutschland". Tranenpalast, Berlin, Germany
1993 "White Night". Yakut Gallery, Moscow
1994 "Drawings". Aidan Gallery, Moscow
"Outsider Art Fair". New York, USA
1995 "Winter Garden". Cultural Center "Phoenix", Moscow
"Esotericum". XL Gallery, Moscow
"Dry Water". Bakhchissaray Palace Museum, Bakhchisaray, Crimea
"Walking over the horizon". Profsoyuznaya st., Q. 100, Moscow
"Worker-2". L Gallery, Moscow
"On the house". Profsoyuznaya st., Q. 100, Moscow 1996 "velvet, wood, paper,. Gallery "Obscuri Viri", Moscow
GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1995 "Winter Garden". Cultural Center "Phoenix", Moscow
"Esotericum". XL Gallery, Moscow
"Dry Water". Bakhchissaray Palace Museum, Bakhchisaray, Crimea
"Walking over the horizon". Profsoyuznaya st., Q. 100, Moscow
"Worker-2". L Gallery, Moscow
"On the house". Profsoyuznaya st., Q. 100, Moscow
1996 International art fair ART-MOSCOW. Central House of Artists, Moscow
"10 Years of Avant-gardists Club". Peresvetov Lane, Moscow (catalog)
"Moscow Studio". Gallery Hemistayl, Washington, USA (catalog)
1997 "The second paragraph". Cultural Center "Phoenix", Moscow
"Ecology of emptiness". ISI Moscow
International art fair ART-MOSCOW. Central House of Artists, Moscow
"History in Faces" (from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art Tsaritsino). Samara. Perm. Novosibirsk. Ekaterinburg (catalog)
"Contemporary Russian Art". Budapest, Hungary "Depositary 1". Manege, Moscow
1998 International art fair ART-MOSCOW, gallery "Obscuri Viri". New Manege, Moscow
Criticism

The door opened, I walked down a long corridor and found ... in painting. "For me the room - it is also painting, art, - says her mistress Maria Konstantinova. Sometimes I rearrange furniture, change anything in some places, but still it is static, where the frozen around the world supports my own stability. "
. Maria Konstantinov was born in a family of architects, studied at the Moscow Art School, then entered the theater department Surikovsky Art Institute
. Theater, theater ... Alas, the theater is not fascinated Maria. "I am an individualist at heart, and theatrical action - the process of collective, confused. I do not want the director told me that, and how to draw, and the actors capricious: "Do not wear this suit". She made not a single performance, the only tribute Melpomene was the thesis - Options costumes for "Twelfth Night" by Shakespeare. Mary wanted to create a credible, relevant epoch images, the imagination commensurate with the history of costume and history of art.
The absolute love of this very history and became the main focus of her creative thinking. Early works, let's call them conventional "soft" side by side in contrast to the current, more aggressive, bear the imprint "historically artificial" prototypes. But it does not work "under the" old masters, . it work "with the" old masters, . who fell from Maria into a kaleidoscope: kranahovskaya girl, . crowned with Chinese characters - Peonies, . butterfly and bird, . Crete-Mycenaean girl, . Characters, . As you can see, . all women, . where softness and flexibility of the lines laid down by nature,
. "Even if I'll draw a man, he would still get some feminine." - Maria laughs. And here there is no subtext, all a matter of grace and captivating lines. Artist who loves Beardsley, interested in the figures, get out of character images, the random contours, "holes".
And what personazhiN He (onaN) was born not at once. Capricious case prompted the artist to the picture in the book of a professor of psychology - the famous photo of Siamese twins - Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapovyh. Perhaps, many will remember these wonderful girls - two figures on one leg. A striking phenomenon has led to the invention, an unexpected character - female nature to suddenly appearing in different parts of the mirror axis. Visual kaleidoscope coincided with a kaleidoscope of historical (such as twisting typical Buddhist tradition, tantric dance).
Thus, the image was uncovered, and the object symbols of ancient cultures were transformed into the familiar. Magical colorful kaleidoscope of scattered esoteric graphemes and hieroglyphs on tender body character of hole and color background. It is interesting that in ancient times, the signs gave sacred meaning. Not always "writing" should be universal, meaning character. Often a prisoner in the signs of the text was understandable only to the author, who knew a special code. Perhaps the distant descendants of the decipherment of writing and will take Maria Konstantinova, but discovered the secret of his contemporaries: Mary for a sign - rather line, shape, and not meaning.
. Substantive work with the shape of the mark led to the use of special materials - interlocking swastikas and stars of the atlas, esoteric symbols, reclining on cushions of medal
. When the Soviet system staggered appeared to openly joke about a powerful symbol - the Star and the Swastika, and their screaming aggressiveness swam, she suddenly became soft and tender. And these signs (among other things, too, has its mirror point) began to weave and copulate.
A series of soft objects Konstantinova was a resounding success, to which the artist has remained completely indifferent. "Ambition, I completely absent, I can not somewhere actively seek, or, as is fashionable now to say," change vector ". I prefer the anonymity of the ancient towering over the object created personality of the creator. Do not consider this sverhsamomneniem, but I would be pleased to make anonymous exhibition.
The list of domestic and foreign exhibitions, which participated Maria Konstantinova, impressive. Her paintings and objects can be found in German and American collections, fashionable Moscow galleries willingly work with her, among my favorite - Aidan Gallery, XL-gallery Elena Selina, which this year hosted the exhibition "Tarot". Maria has done for her several fiction works.
In the eighties, to earn a living painting was difficult. Orders also helped in publishing houses, in the "Book" with illustrations by Mary scanty, though amazing little book edition came Pogorelsky A. "The Double, or my evenings in the Ukraine". "Quite by accident, I was master of children's popular science. In work on "Pochemuchka" attended many of my friends. The book is written dozens of reprints. A pity that saw the light of the epic "Kalidasa", illustrations of which also did Mary.
She remembers that he always pictured for himself ". "For myself," is drawn and the current series, it could be called aggressive. But he is aggressive only in the color. Obsolete academic canons, especially the doctrine of "dirty color, prompted Mary to the use of pure color, characteristic of the popular splints or Tibetan icons - tank. Clear Color Maria draws its friends. Their gorgeous faces, coupled with the ironic esoteric, can delve into speculation about a new iconography at the turn of the century п?п?1. But we do not argue, we just look in a kaleidoscope, admiring the intricate pattern made up of art history, specular and anonymity. "Friends" are woven for Maria in reality more attractive than the one that rages outside her apartment-pictures. In this reality - a delightful combination of colors, plastics, lines, shapes, intricate historical plexus and the vague irony in the twinkling of ancient cultures.

A. Berkut. "The new iconography of Maria Konstantinova". - Harper `s Bazaar, 1996, March-April