Dmitriy Grek
Stone — Looking Out
Looking Out is a series of bas-relief portraits carved in stone, seen in profile or in three-quarters, never in full face. They seem to peek out of the depths of raw stone, from beyond the mysterious veil of unspoken words.
In the series, Dmitriy Grek explores the material’s specificity: the unique properties of any given stone require equally unique methods to highlight them. By endowing the stones with anthropomorphic elements, the sculptor seems to bring them to life, to set up opportunities for dialogue, a hook for a viewer that makes communication possible. Dmitriy Grek never takes this act of mimesis to its very end however. By leaving the imagery unfinished, he opens up an endless resonating space for the initial form that produced the sculpture; the artist preserves each stone’s original properties, its texture, random chips and cracks that document the stone’s “life.” By setting these properties free and laying them bare, the artist sets up a dialogue between a sculpture and its human viewer: “Each material sounds different, and we approach it in a different way.
Humankind is raw material too, if spiritual in nature. We have our own perspective ‘from the inside,’ while sculptures look out at us from the block of raw material.”
Ukrainian artist Snigir Dmitriy Anatolyevich was born in 1978.
In 1993 he enrolled at the Myrhorod Art College Department of Art Ceramics. He graduated in 1997 and entered the Kharkiv Art and Industry Institute at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Crafts. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Indoor and Monumental Sculpture in 2001.
The same year Snigir transferred to the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture (Kyiv), which he graduated in 2004, earning the qualification of Artist - Sculptor in Fine Arts and Crafts.
Since 2006, Dmitriy Snigir participates in exhibitions under the pseudonym Dmitriy Grek.
In 2005, 2006 and 2007 he participated in creative plein air workshops on stone sculpture under the direction of A. Sukholit, which resulted in a series of landscape sculptural projects.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
2020
Ukraine Today, Modern Art Research Institute, Kyiv
2019
Contemporary Ukranian Art of 1985 - 2015 from Private Collection, Modern Art Research Institute, Kyiv
CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2019, Palazzo Ca 'Zanardi, Venice, Italy
Modern Ukrainian Symbolism and Mikhail Vrubel, National Museum of Kyiv Art Gallery, Kyiv
Melody of Being, Triptych Art, Kyiv
Diva, Mystets Gallery, Kyiv
Art project Modern Ukrainian Symbolism, Museum of Contemporary Ukrainian Art Korsakov, Lutsk
2018
Small, wintry, sculptural, Triptych Art, Kyiv
Step, Triptych Art, Kyiv
More than sculpture. Art Ukraine Gallery, Kyiv
2017
Private Collection. Contemporary Ukrainian Artists. Modern Art Research Institute, Kyiv
Clay Adam, solo exhibition, Triptych Art gallery, Kyiv
2015
Great Sculptural Salon, Arsenale, Kyiv
Self-portrait of the Artist Group project, Triptych Art gallery, Kyiv
2014
All-Ukrainian triennial of sculpture, exhibition halls of the Central House of Artist (National Union of Artists of Ukraine)
Breathing of Earth, Exhibition Hall of Taras Shevchenko Museum, Kyiv
Breathing of Space, solo exhibition, Triptych Art gallery, Kyiv
2011
All-Ukrainian triennial of sculpture, diploma of II degree for the "Girl on a roe deer" sculpture
2010
Spring exhibition, exhibition halls of the Central House of Artist, Kyiv
2008
All-Ukrainian triennial of sculpture, exhibition halls of the Central House of Artist, Kyiv
2006
Youth, all-Ukrainian art exhibition, exhibition halls of the Central House of Artist, Kyiv
2005
All-Ukrainian triennial of sculpture, exhibition halls of the Central House of Artist, Kyiv
2004
All-Ukrainian Autumn Art Exhibition, exhibition halls of the Central House of Artist, Kyiv
2002
All-Ukrainian Triennial of Sculpture, Exhibition Halls of the Central House of Artist, Kyiv
2001
New Art of an Independent Country, Kharkiv City Art Gallery, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2000
Prologue, Kharkiv State Polytechnic University, French Center, Kharkiv, Ukraine
1999
Kabardino-Balkaria Museum of Fine Arts
Artist’s works are in private collections in Alicante (Spain), Tuscany (Italy), Kyiv (Ukraine), Moscow (Russia), Miami (Florida, USA), Toronto (Canada)