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Michael Kuznetsov

Michael Kuznetsov was born in 1964. In 1985 he graduated from an art school. In 1988 he was admitted to the Philological Department of Omsk State University.

Personal exhibitions:
1996 -Gallery ''Scit''
1994, 1997 - Omsk Drama Theatre, Omsk, Russia
1999,2001- Gallery ''Nevsky,20'', St. Petersburg, Russia
2001 - Gallery ''St.Petersburg'', Oslo, Norway

Exhibitions:
1989 - Gallery ''Krest'', Omsk, Russia
1996 - Gallery ''2L'', Omsk, Russia
1996, 1997 - Gallery ''The World of Painting'' Omsk, Russia
1999 - ''Erotica 99'' Manege, St. Petersburg, Russia
1999 - The International Artsalon in Barcelona Euroart'99, Spain
1999 - The Internatonal Biennale-Florence '99, Italy
2000 - The International Artexpo California 2000, Concourse Exhibition Center, San Francisco, USA
2000 - Gallery Nelly Borg & Ove Anderson, Oslo, Norway
2001 - Savonlinna Art Festival, Finland
2001 - ''Kosken Galeria'', Imatra, Finland
2001 - Art Big Show, North Carolina, USA
2001 - The 2nd Annual Palm Springs International Art Fair, USA
2001 - ''New Russian Classical school'' in Hilligoss Gallery, Chicago, USA

Michael graduated from the univercity with a theoretical research paper ''The Simultaneous Principle of the Spatial Construction of the Text''. The synthesis of philological and art education has effected the formation of the style of the artist, which he considers as ''neoromantism''. In his painting, Michael Kuznetsov attempts to overlap literary and visual metaphors, use picturesque and narrative citations and incorporate elements and layers of space surreally. There are both fancy characters and elements in the space of his paintings.
Michael Kuznetsov's paintings explore four distinct areas in depth and intensity: sea landscapes, still lifes, portraits and what the artist calls ''magic landscapes.'' The four paths run parallel interweaving on a regular basis. Among the authors and artists which have influenced Michael Kuznetsov's painting are Hermann Hesse, Umberto Eco, John Fowles, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Salvador Dali, Leonardo, Church and many others. Sometimes Michael is representing imagery from the past and transforming it through his hand and mind and eye. His landscapes are invented and never specific places. They are infused with the ambience of the Romantic painters he loves from the 19th century and before. Like the 19th century painters whose reverence for landscape was made manifest in paint, Michael paints poetic and romantic landscapes with layer upon layer of luscious oil paint. At times the ''master'' image is a fragment of an underwater landscape. By creating two sides of equal intensity, the artist has eliminated the pre-modern concept of central focus and created a duet of focal points. Each side can or could stand on its own merits, but together the diptychs create a wonderful fantasy underwater world. Michael paints the two sides of the diptychs in a palette that is harmonious and sustains the moods in the paints from top to bottom. It is the joining of colour and mood that makes it all work.