Born in 1969 in Grozny, Chechnya
Graduated from the Krasnodar college of Fine Arts (painting), 1984-1988
Since 2001 curates the "France" Gallery
Lives and works in Moscow


Aleksey Kallima is the most notable artist from the pleiad of talents, given to Moscow by the southern provinces in the 90s. A refugee from his native Groznyy and witness of its storming, the Russian Aleksey Kallima acts as a patriot of Chechnya in Moscow and in his works refers to the theme of the Chechen war. The artists develops the theme of the province in a harsh way, in opposition to generally accepted democratic norms, without national exotica, natural beauty, the adornment of historical and regional traditions. The Chechens for Kallima are the inhabitants of roads and roadsides; they wear Adidas, drink Coca-Cola and smoke Turkish Marlborough. The global brands receive an unexpected boost of energy, becoming the marks of saboteurs and terrorists. Returning to figurative expressive language, the artist has freed the picture from its responsibilities to realism, having placed it in the dimension of will and imagination. Will is personified by the Chechens, the wild power of the new millennium, bringing death to the old epoch.




The artist explains the inclination towards powerful artistic effects and monumentality by a feeling for the need of the birth of a new "grand" manner. However, as a person of taste and keen intuition, Kallima avoids depictive naturalism and ideological chauvinism.

The heroes of his monumental epos are "aliens": social outcasts, "blacks", Chechens, in general – "persons of Caucasian nationality", as the Moscow police call them. The materials employed by the artist in the creation of his collages are ephemeral, fleeting substances such as charcoal, florescent paints and candy wrappers. Thus, the "grand manner" is presented by the artist as an inversion, not in the style of an apotheosis, but as a personal suggestion, personal optics of a kind.

AWARDS
2006 – Prize for the Best Visual Art Work in the State Competition in Contemporary Arts INNOVATION (Moscow)

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2006 Dead calmness, "Lightbox", New York
"Rebels". Together with Erbol Meldibekov, Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin
"Private emotions". Guelman Gallery, Moscow

2005
"Malika, Shut the Door", S'Art, Moscow
Chronicles, "Reflex" Gallery, ArtStrelka, Moscow

2004
"Houris and Reci-divas", Guelman Gallery, Moscow

2003
"Distance", Tretyakov Gallery
"Case on the roadside, or examination on roads", Guelman Gallery, Moscow
ART-MOSCOW, "Malika, shut the door", installation, Moscow
"Tomorrow", wall graphic, gallery France, Moscow

2002
"You are there where are absent", gallery France, Moscow
"Zefirs", performance, gallery France, Moscow
"Monument to victims", action, gallery France, Moscow

2001
"Chechens", action, Art Moscow, Moscow

2000
"SES", action in Moscow Kremlin on Presidential election day, Moscow

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2007
Artist's Diary. Special project of Marat Guelman Foundation within the 1st Moscow Biennale. Central House of Artist, Moscow
Thaw. 15 years of M. Guelman Gallery. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

2005-2006
Russia 2. WHITE BOX, New York

2005
Artist and Arms, M'ARS Gallery, Moscow
Portrait of a Face, Guelman Gallery, M'ARS Gallery, Moscow
Russian Pop-Art, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Europalia, festival of contemporary art (Brussels, Belgium)
Moscow Breakthrough, London
I Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Curator's project "Dialectic of Hopefulness"
I Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, special project "Russia 2"

2003
ART-MOSCOW, "We and they", graphic series "Charcoals"
"Fashion control", Guelman Gellery, Moscow
ARTKLYAZMA, Festival of Contemporary Art, Moscow
"Stop! Who goes?", NSCA, Moscow
"Same old sun everywhere", gallery France, Moscow
"Inspection platform", Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
"New countdown", Central House of Artists, Moscow

2002
"DAVAJ!", Posthfuramt, Berlin; museum MAC, Vienna
"Snowgirl", Warszawa
"Instead of art", Zverev Center, Moscow
"Actual report", Samara, Tolyatty, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod
"Melioration", Festival of Contemporary Art, Moscow
"Stop! Who goes?", NSCA, Moscow
"100% vision", gallery Regina, Moscow
"Pop/Art", Zverev Center, Moscow
"Georgia from/to", Zverev Center, Moscow

2001
"Personal / Impersonal", Baumanskaya, 13, Moscow

1997
"The world of sensual things in pictures", SMFA of A.Pushkin, Moscow

1995
Venice Biennale, pavilion L'art Vizione, curator Ernst Foux, Venice


Links:
"Houris and Reci-divas" exhibition

Print version