On November 10, BIS ART GALLERY hosted the opening of Irina Sergeeva’s exhibition «Music. 124×140 mm».
Irina Sergeeva became widely known primarily as a portrait painter, as well as as the author of paintings on musical themes. Many of her works are inspired by musical compositions, and her jazz cycle has aroused great interest among both the general public and professional audiences.
The exhibition «Music. 124×140 mm» contains paintings and digital works created by the artist for the design of music albums by artists such as Sergey Mavrin, didyulya, Varvara Vizbor, Helavisa, Yakrun, Alevtina, Seducer’s Embrace, Free&Losh, Denis Shvytov.
The exhibition offers to see how musical works can be given a visual form. Irina, as an artist, rethinks the work of musicians and transfers her feelings to the covers. This is a kind of paradox of the existence of music outside the sound space. Nevertheless, in Irina’s work there is a visualization of the sound flow, she passes it through herself and transforms what she hears into visual.
As Irina says in an interview: «For me, sound and color are very closely related. Literally physically. When I listen to music, I seem to see sounds, they turn into colors, lines, flashes, light splashes. I.e., the sound stream in my brain somehow melts into visual-figurative-color. This property is called synesthesia, or „color hearing“. This is not some unique ability. It seems to me that many people have a similar relationship of the senses: some-with smells, others-with tactile sensations. I can literally see the sound.»
What would folk songs look like next to harsh death metal? How can modern refined graphic design coexist with academic painting? At the exhibition «Music. 124×140 mm» the neighborhood is embodied by enclosing music in a graphic format of 120×140 mm — the standard size of CD covers. The variety of different genres of music for which Irina created covers is intertwined with the versatility of the artist’s own work. The exhibition presents both oil canvases, graphics on paper, as well as digital-art together with videography. Irina’s music mania, which promotes collaboration with artists of various genres — from jazz to heavy rock-to some extent explains the eclectic nature of her painting.
With each of the musicians, the artist has a special story that determines the further design of their musical material. Some of the musicians rely entirely on the taste and picturesque vision of Irina, and someone on the contrary, sets the vector of work and actively participates in the creation of the cover.
At the exhibition «Music. 124×140 mm», the viewer will see not only the «frontispieces» of albums as a visual embodiment of music, but also will be able to look into the «kitchen» of creative collaborations of the artist and musicians.
The opening was also attended by some musicians: Varvara Vizbor, Yakrun’s band, Seducer’s Embrace, Alevtina, Denis Shvytov. The artists signed the cover prints and their CDs to those who wished.