A new exhibition tilted “Opening the World” was opened in the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve. It presents 45 works of Vologda’s graphic artist, painter and restorer Arkady Polyakov. Landscapes created in Russia, Montenegro and Poland dominate among them. Besides, visitors can see portraits and still lifes there.
Most of the pictures are about the Vologda region: both well-known places and small cosy corners familiar only to local residents are depicted in them. The canvases with historical and architectural monuments (“Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery”) and modern structures (“Eiffel Hill in Vologda”), foreign southern landscapes (“A House beside Sea”) and severe northern views (“Kum Lake”) are displayed in the museum. The artist seems to invite spectators to accompany him in the perception of the outside world with the help of his works.
The opening ceremony of the exhibition took place in the conference hall on January 30. Museum employees and inhabitants of Kirillov attended it. Arkady Polyakov greeted them and said, “I am very grateful to the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum for an opportunity to present my works here, in Kirillov. I love this town. Coming here I always find something new for me as an artist. The Vologda region is very beautiful. I didn’t notice and understand it until I began to paint in the open air. Taking up plein air painting, I have fallen in love with this land, have become more patriotic and now I am actively popularizing my favourite Vologda region”.
Arkady Polyakov
He was born in Vologda in 1973 and learnt to be a restorer of wooden monuments.
From 1995 to 2001, he worked as a graphic designer in the Vologda branch of the RF Art Fund.
Since 1999, he has been a member of the Youth Association of Vologda’s Artists, has been participating in regional and All-Russian art exhibitions.
Since 2002, he is a fine art restorer of wooden articles in the Vologda State Museum-Preserve for History, Architecture and Art.
He was trained in the All-Russian Art Scientific and Restoration Centre named after academician I.E. Grabar in 2004 and 2006.
He is a member of the Union of Russian Writers since 2008.
Arkady Polyakov takes part in regional, All-Russian and foreign art exhibitions. His one-man displays were staged in Vologda (2004, 2006, 2012) and St. Petersburg (2009).
The artist’s works are kept in the collections of the Vologda Regional Picture Gallery, the Vologda State Museum-Preserve for History, Architecture and Art, the Kirillo-Belozersky Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, the Scientific and Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, the Russian Cultural Centre (Warsaw), the Borey Art Gallery (St. Petersburg), in private collections in Russia and abroad.
