Igor Vishnyakov

Igor Vishnyakov was born in 1968 in Moscow and spent his childhood in Africa and Southeast Asia. After returning to Moscow in the mid-80’s he started painting, photographing key figures of Russian avant-garde movement and widely exhibiting his work. In his youth Vishnyakov was already a significant figure in Moscow and St. Petersburg art community.

 

He became a permanent member of the New Academy of Fine Arts soon after it was founded by Timur Novikov in 1989. He must have first became aware of alternate photographic printing processes while studying in the New Academy. Novikov, Egelskiy, Alexandrov, Ostrov and other Academy members were engaged in reviving precious photo printing techniques widely spread in the XIX century, such as gum arabic pigment print, bromoils, calotypes, chirotypes, carbon process, Savrasov and Sery methods and many others.  

 

In 1990 Vishnyakov moved to New York to establish himself as a reportage and then as a fashion photographer and soon got his work published in a dozen of American and European magazines. Soon after he continued his art education in a New York studio of a French painter Emmanuel Flipo. Although living as an emigrant, Vishnyakov remained his connections with the Russian art world, especially with the New Academy, and participated in a number of group exhibitions. In 1997 he joined the «new serious» movement that gathered neoacademists from Moscow and St. Petersburg.

 

His very own established technique is mixed media, combining classical photography, gum arabic pigment printing, tempera painting and printing. The smallest details, such as  peculiarities and nuances of putting an emulsion, thickness, pressure and color of brush strokes, or paper texture, gain strange, even mystic significance in his whole work. Photographic details show through and then dissolve in the layers of paint, leaving the image slightly unexposed and the philosophical background unrevealed. The viewer is impelled to come back over and over again. Vishnyakov’s work has a feeling of  ephemerality, conveys a sense of never being truly finished, inclines a truly meditative state.     

 

In his never ending reconnaissance of ideal image of beauty Vishnyakov is inspired by esoteric and Oriental spiritual practices. Everything finds place in his art, whether it is Tao doctrine of five elements, symbols of Tarot’s Major Arcana, majestic temples of ancient India or plain netsuke figures. Whatever there is, artist’s major principle is harmony, both inner and outward, spiritual and visual.

 

Vishnyakov also teaches photography in America and Japan, practices kung fu and remains a Shaolin monk’s novice for eleven years already. At present he is living between New York and Moscow with his muse, a model and a talented painter Sasha Pivovarova.

Nu 6 - 2005
Nu 6

About

 

The RNA Foundation is a cultural platform that aims at promoting established as well as up and coming Russian artists and creative individuals. Founded by Victoria Golembiovskaya, the RNA utilizes its wide reaching connections to provide support and exposure to artists, facilitating their relations with curators, dealers and critics. With experience in art management and curating Golembiovskaya established RNA in order to contribute to the Russian art education system, diversifying its narrow scope and implementing a wider, international engagement.

 

By providing space and means for artists to develop their practice, our goal is to establish a constantly expanding and developing network, where the Russian contemporary art scene can be introduced to a wider art market, galleries and institutions across the globe. To do so, an exploration of new ideas is needed, as well as an active expanding of boundaries of the media available. This progressive outlook allows us to bring out the collaborative potential of not only museums and galleries we work with, but also of other foundations, auction houses and art institutions.

 

One aspect of our future projects is to establish a series of workshop spaces that will provide an interdisciplinary environment for Russian artists from all backgrounds and with varying degree of experience. Serving as a meeting point and an exchange ground for cultural capital, these work and gallery spaces would also function as lecture theatres for educational purposes and public events. We also plan to create residencies between Russian and international artists, where we hope to instigate a much needed cross-fertilization and collaboration.

 

However in order to realize such varied projects, we often need financial support whether from an individual, patron, trust or company. Philanthropy and charity are important factors in realizing any cultural project and we would be happy to work with you, directing the need of social engagement and cultural support through RNA’s activities.

 

Active since 2008, RNA Foundation is an exciting, passionate organization that has exhibited and curated around the world, devoting our focus on international artistic progression.

Art Advisory

 

Before launching the RNA Foundation in 2008, Victoria Golembiovskaya worked as a film producer and artistic director, gaining a vast experience in art management and further expanding her knowledge of history of art, which has graned the RNA foundation an original place and point of view within the international art community.


Our service is second to none; we provide consultations for the establishment and maintenance of private collections, as well as for large-scale curatorial projects. We have the contacts and resources to get a hold of rare works from all over the world for both private and public clients. In the last three years alone the RNA Foundation has produced shows in London, Moscow and Venice, handling valuable works in unprecedented environments, with a priority in presenting them in unique yet elegant manner. While maintaining a high standard and a rigorous vision we tailor our services to the client.


As a consultant, we go further than most agencies, providing legal advice for sales, organizing transportation of art works, and of course taking care of the acquisition process, operating on a strictly confidential basis.

CONTACTS

 

Katerina Tesa
+7 926 2497367
kate@rnafoundation.com