Maiofis Gregori

GREGORI MAIOFIS (b. 1970) revives the almost forgotten bromoil technique, which achieves the quality of a painting. Photo emulsion is saturated with oil paint, and the print acquires the painted softness of sepia. The artist turns his photographs into monochrome paintings.

Maiofis selects large-scale painting formats uncharacteristic for photography and makes a print on canvas. What is more, the reality that was once so sought after to capture in the camera’s lens loses its documentality in the artist’s works. His pieces are metaphoric and allegorical, as in the Proverbs series. In this series, as in Aesop’s fables, elephants, monkeys, and bears inhabit our social world, where they play the piano, dance, and pose with a ballerina.

We may say that Maiofis embodies Aesop’s language of proverbs not only in the plot, but in the technique itself. The artist speaks in the language of photography, but he tells his story differently, in a roundabout way, using not only the figures of animals but painting effects themselves as allegory.

Olesya Turkina

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Awards

2020

• Higashikawa International Photography Award (for the series "Mixed Reality"), Japan

2008

• Nominated for the Kandinsky Prize, Moscow, Russia

2006

• Betty and Jim Kasson Award from the Center for Photographic Art for the “Proverbs” series, USA

2004

• Grant from the KulturKontakt foundation, Vienna, Austria

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Primary solo exhibitions

2020

• “Mixed Reality”. Novy Museum by Aslan Chekhoev, St. Petersburg, Russia

2018

• “He called me a potato!”. Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia

2015

• “Taste to Russian ballet”. Peter Fetterman Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2013

• “Belle époque”. Marina Gisich Gallery and Ural Vision Gallery, Yekaterinburg, Russia
• “Bestiary”. Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia

2012

• “Lessons of the Russian language”. pop/off/art gallery, Berlin, Germany

2011

• “Gregori Maiofis. Artist and Model: Ways of Reading”, Novy Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

2010

• №3. Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia

2009

• Barbarian-Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
• “Artist and model”. pop/off/art gallery, Moscow, Russia
• DNJ Gallery, Лос Анжелес, США

2008

• “Proverbs”, De Santos Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA

2007

• “Ecce Homo”. Gallery Nestroyhoff, Vienna, Austria
• “Pictures for interiors”, pop/off/art gallery, Moscow, Russia

2006

• “In the Artist’s studio”. One Work Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• “Recent works”. Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia

2005

• De Santos Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA

2004

• “Selected works”. Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia

2003

• 13th International Festival of Photography in Bratislava, Slovakia
• “Parables”. Central Exhibition Hall of Slovak Artists Union, the Month of Photography, Slovakia

1999

• “Painting as Improvisation”. Parthenon Museum, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

1998

• Vostochnaya Gallery/ Seven Hills Gallery, Moscow, Russia

1995

• Metro Arts Commission Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
• Gallery 21, St. Petersburg, Russia

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Public exhibitions

2015

• “Provenance”. Exhibition for 15th anniversary of Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia
• “Painting after painting”. National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA), St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia

2014

• Contemporary Drawing”. The State Russian Museum, Marble Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

2013

• Art Paris Art Fair. pop/off/art gallery booth, Paris, France
• “Beauty without glamour”, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
• Contemporary Istanbul, Marina Gisich Gallery booth, Istanbul, Turkey

2012

• “Complete Lie. The art of political metaphor”. pop/off/art gallery, Moscow, Russia
• “Contemporary Russian Photography”. Fotofest 2012 Biennial, Houston, Texas, USA
• Vienna Fair. Booths of Marina Gisich Gallery and pop/off/art gallery, Vienna, Austria
• Contemporary Istanbul. Marina Gisich Gallery booth, Istanbul, Turkey
• “Those who hear not the music think the dancers mad”. Marina Gisich Gallery and Ural Vision Gallery, Yekaterinburg, Russia

2010

• Volta 6, Basel, Switzerland
• Vienna Fair, Vienna, Austria

2009

• Photo LA. Los Angeles, California, USA
• "GM+VP. Some Works". Huset Guldager, Denmark
• PINGYAO International Photography Festival, China
• “Frozen Reality”. Hoster Projects Gallery, London, UK

2008

• Exhibition of Kandinsky Prize Nominees, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
• “Power of Water”. The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
• “Manifesto of Convictions”. Barbarian Art Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
• “Young Gallerist/Young Collectors”. pop/off/art gallery, Moscow, Russia
• Herning Art Fair, Denmark
• “Intimate Diaries”. Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland

2007

• Photo LA. Los Angeles, California, USA
• International Art Fair “ART-ATHINA 2007”, Athens, Greece
• International Art Fair “Cornice”, Booth of pop/off/art gallery, Venice, Italy

2006

• Photo LA, Los Angeles, California, USA
• “No Eyes. Collection Dancing Bear”. Musee de L'Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Fotofest 2006 Fine Print Auction, the World Art Museum Gallery and the Doubletree Hotel, Houston, Texas, USA
• “Quasi/porno”. pop/off/art Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• “Moscow Photographic Collections”. Lumiere Brothers Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• “WAZZUP?”. Fotogalerie, Vienna, Austria

2005

• «Sans Regard, or No Eyes: Looking at. Collection Dancing Bear», Арль, Франция
• – “Collage in Russia. The 20th Century”. the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
• Exhibition of Photo-projects Contest participants, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, California, USA

2004

• Meeting Place PhotoFest. Houston, USA

2003

• “International Photo-Festival”. Bratislava, Slovakia

2000

• "Graphic Art from the Collection of the Irbit Art Museum”, St. Petersburg, Russia

1996

• “Artopia” Festival. Nashville, Tennessee, USA
• “200 years of Art in Tennessee”. Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

1991

• “Five Young Artists from Leningrad”. ESEC Academy, Paris, France

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Collections

• Fondation Wilmotte, Venice, Италия
• Sepherot Foundation, Switzerland
• Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
• Duncan Family Foundation, Lincoln, NE, USA
• Santa Barbara Museum of Modern Art, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LA, CA, USA
• Novy Museum by Aslan Chekhoev, St. Petersburg, Russia;
• Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA;

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