“Kirill Danelia works in the assemblage genre” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Dmitry Butkevich talks about the exhibition “1234567” at the Fusion gallery.

My old friend Kirill Danelia, as he himself says, has a “half anniversary”, 55 years old. He decided to celebrate it with an exhibition of his works in his own Fusion gallery on Povarskaya. He called the exhibition “1234567”. I asked: why? Kira replied that most of his works contain numbers, as well as musical instruments and fire hydrants. Danelia works in the assemblage genre, “pasting” scripts and violas, street signs, etc. into her canvases.

I met Kirill about 30 years ago at what was probably his first exhibition at the then Central House of Artists. I even remember that I wrote him an explanation. Then he left for the USA, where he mastered the art of artistic tattooing to perfection. This is how Kirill talks about this period of his life:

“I ended up in a nature reserve. There was a great scene of artists in Washington Heights that went back to the 1980s. There I stayed to work. I had a contract at the gallery, it was professional work. Then she moved back to Russia, and I returned here.”

Danelia became a major gallery owner, dealing with such a rare topic for Russia as oriental art: Ancient Egypt, Babylon, China. Most of all I love his proud Han horses and, of course, the amazing figurines of the Indian Gandhara civilization, reminiscent of aliens with round helmet-like heads.

At the same time, Kirill did not abandon his own creativity, as evidenced by the exhibition “1234567”, by the way, open to visitors except Monday.

I must say that parts of violins and saxophones, combined with New York hydrants and instant noodle packages, very harmoniously coexist on the gallery walls with ancient glyptics and the sarcophagus of a young Egyptian queen.