The Fantasmic Realities of Konstantin Kalinovich

The prints of Konstantin Kalinovich….well what can one say, but WOW! Take a trip on his magical, mystical realism tour and one still can’t quite fathom the depth of his imagination. I mean, honestly, what kind of mind thinks up these kinds of characters and places? They are an astoundingly complex, delightful, creepy, wildly entertaining and downright bizarre.

And one can’t stop looking at them, wondering how Kalinovich sees these images, let alone pulls them out of his creative hat the way he does. They are superb images, and they sweep us up into their little environs to wander around and share the space with old monks, creepy old men in big hats, moths the size of blimps, and apple carriages and dogs in party hats. They make me smile.

Kalinovich shows references from his printmaking and art ancestors, via the Beatles of the Northern Renaissance illuminated manuscripts, Jean, Paul and Herman Limbourg. He also divulges a reverence for the northern European landscape through the city of Vermeer and his light-filled skies.

The artist’s play with scale also shows his love of Bosch, whose five hundred year old surreal images we still haven’t recovered from; and make us feel like we’ve drunk the wrong potion in a Alice in Wonderland storyline.

Kalinovich compartmentalizes his plots and spots of activity, and counters them with wildly out of Natural order mind-benders like skaters on a man’s lace collar, Ravens the size of elephants flying over wintry, snow-covered cottages straight out of a Pieter Breugel the Elder landscape. The snippets of color add a little surprise element, but one can imagine the color of these places quite easily without it.

The churches and towns and castles come right out of the crusader days of the Middle ages, and his use of symbolic keys in keyholes to open doorways into even more bizarre worlds is almost too much for our poor creative souls to bear; but we must and we should open those doors to see what else Kalinovich has in store for us. We could learn a thing or two, I am sure.

The staggering detail found in Kalinovich’s work is only surpassed by the minutia scale with which he chooses to operate. There is a history of Eastern European printmakers to work in a small scale, maybe in part due to available supply, but their mastery of the plate is incredible. Kalinovich is one of those printmakers who loves to wow us with his imagery, but the skill required to describe these tiny jeweled places sets us on our heels.

He is a master of the old school traditions, and he has brought it out of the past to reinvent our present. The fanciful subjects of his work doesn’t speak directly to any current political or social situations, but he plays with our perceptions of reality, and what we can imagine. But really, my dear inked up comrades, how many of us can picture anything as wild and wonderful as the fantasmic world of Kalinovich?


Biography
b.1959, in Novokuznetsk city, Russia
studied at the Ukrainian Academy of Printing 1986 - 1992
elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Printer-Printmakers, 1992
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1990 - Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales, Rimney Valley, United Kingdom
1992 - Central Library, Cardiff, United Kingdom
1992 - Center for the Arts "Lantarnam Grunge" Combrailles, United Kingdom
1993 - Gallery "Galart", Lviv, Ukranina
1995 - The City Library, Gutersloh, Germany
1998 - Gallery "Ural", Assen, Netherlands
1999 - Gallery "Ural", Assen, The Netherlands
1999 - Guggenheim Pavilion - Rensernaervil Institute, USA
2000 - Art Salon, Lugansk, Ukraine
2000 - Gallery "Epruv d'Artist" in Antwerp, Belgium
2001 - Gallery "Susekkulen" Olofstrёm, Sweden
2001 - Marine Gallery, Odessa, Ukraine
2001 - Apartment Museum Brodsky, St. Petersburg, Russia
2002 - Tea House Summer Garden, St. Petersburg, Russia
2005 - Ukrainian Cultural Center - traveling exhibition, Finland
2005 - Gallery "l'Atrio", Matera, Italy
2005 - The Museum of Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg, Germany
2006 - Gallery "Shulok", Iserlohn, Germany
2007 - Gallery "Samlargrafik" Vanneberga Sweden
2008 - Gallery "Triptych", Kiev, Ukraine
2008 - An exhibition salon SDK, Nice , Poland
2008 - Gallery "Epruv d'Artist”, Antwerp, Belgium
2010 - "Waiting for Snow" gallery "Triptych", Kiev, Ukraine

AWARDS
1994 - Award for Excellence,
VII International Exhibition of printmaking, Seoul, South Korea
1996 - Medal P. Steller, II International exhibition of woodcuts, Katowice, Poland
1997 - Prize of the city of Sint-Nikalaas International Bookplate Competition "Fairy Tales", Sint Nikalaas, Belgium
1997 - First Prize, International Competition Bookplate, Gliwice, Poland
2000 - Gold Prize, Biennale Charts, Qingdao, China
2001 - Award-acquisition, exhibition of miniature prints, Norwalk, CT, USA
2001 - Special Prize, IX Biennial of Small Graphic Forms, Isle Wielkopolski, Poland
2002 - Award-acquisition, the National Exhibition of printmaking, London, UK
2003 - Award Masterpiece Tai Cheb International Biennale of prints, Beijing, China
2004 - Award of the Association Plots Slovakia
IV Triennale Bookplate, Bratislava , Slovakia
2005 - First Prize and Medal, XX International Bookplate Biennial, Malbork, Poland
2006 - Award of the company "Giant Art", International Exhibition of Print, Chamalieres, France
2006 - First Prize, International Exhibition of printmaking "Tabula Rasa", Istanbul, Turkey
2006 - Award of Santa Croce, the International Bookplate Competition, Santa Croce sul Arno, Italy
2006 - Grant Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York, USA
2007 - Medal of Honor, XXI Biennial International Ex-libris, Malbork, Poland
2007 - Award-acquisition and Medal VI Biennial of Miniature prints, Norwalk, CT, USA
2007 - Second Prize, International Competition Biennale Gramarina'07, Odessa, Ukranina
2009 - Second Prize, VII Biennial of Miniature prints, Norwalk, CT, USA
2009 - Medal of Honor, XX International Bookplate Biennial, Malbork, Poland
2010 - Second Prize, VIII International Graphic Competition bookplates, Gliwice, Poland
2011 - First Prize and Medal - XXIII International Biennale bookplates, Malbork, Poland
2012 - Second Prize – 1st international exhibition of graphics and Bookplate "Belovezhskaya Pushcha 600", Brest, Belarus
2012 - Prize for the best bookplate - International Biennale bookplate and small graphics, Guangzhou, China

Email: kk-snail@yandex.ru