Waiheke Island - Local People, Local Knowledge
Ilya Volykhine
From Waihekepedia
Ilya Volykhine (born 1967) is a Russian visual artist. Volykhine was born in Ust Labinsk, Russia, emigrated to the United States in 1991 and lived for many years in New York City. He moved to Australia in late 2000 and held several solo exhibitions in Australia with his work being selected for many exhibitions there, including the Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2003) the Blake Prize for Religious Art (2004), Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award Touring Exhibition (2007), the Mosman Art Prize (2008). In 2009 he arrived on Waiheke Island and has shown at numerous exhibitions at the Waiheke Community Art Gallery. Most recently his work was shown in the Walker & Hall Art Award Exhibition. He currently has his art studio located on Waiheke Island and it is open to the public most weekends during the year.
Volykhine uses a combination of oils and paper (archival copies of personal letters from his mother still in Russian Cyrillic) on panel. His works are characterised by whimsical figures with luminous vivid colours and the artistsʼ unique iconography infused with both memories of Russian literature and popular culture. The artistʼs versatile use of different expressive media is directly connected to the kaleidoscope of cultures that coexist in his personality: born in the Soviet Union, he has led a mobile existence in Russia, USA, Australia and most recently New Zealand; between the polymorphic vitality of Russian culture and the New York “melting pot” he delves into the idea of the accidental nature of the world as creative force, maintaining a detachment with respect to subjects and materials that allows him to freely explore and express his experience of the world in painting.
