Gafur Mendagaliev

Gafur Sifatovich Mendagaliev (Russian: Гафур Сифатович Мендагалиев; June 2, 1954) is a Soviet and Russian painter, graphic artist, book artist, and sculptor.^[1]

Gafur Mendagaliev was born in Kamyzyak (Astrakhan region). Graduated from Astrakhan Art School named after Vlasov (1979-1983). Studied painting in A.V. Kondratyev's studio. Member of "Kochevye" group. Participant of over 100 exhibitions in Russia and abroad (since 1987).^[2]

An avant-garde artist of Leningrad, Mendagaliev’s style is naïve. Vibrant colors and thick, heavy strokes form simple scenes that feel more symbolic than real.In each painting, there are repeated motifs: a table, a chimera, women, a bird, a fish. There appears to be a story begging to be told about the city he has lived in for so long, and, perhaps, a painful one. In the paintings, faces of people look in different directions, they pull from each other, guiding the viewer’s eyes into a chaos as the sphinx overlooks it all with a sense of doom. Then, there are portraits of chimeras and demons stalking individuals on the metro, women tormented next to a table or underwater beneath a fish in flight. They have a sinister tone to them. Fantastical, but simple, Mendagaliev’s works linger in the mind and resurface in the memory of St. Petersburg as a city.^[3]

The artist's personal exhibitions were presented in St. Petersburg, Paris and Munich (Opera Galerie, Paris, 1993; Galerie Kloska und Vinogradov, Munich, 1995; Galerie im Stiegoibaus, Munich, 1997; Mednis Gallery, 1995; Kaliningrad, 2000; Museum of Urban Sculpture, 2002 (St. Petersburg); Stray Dog Cafe, 2007 (St. Petersburg); Konstantinovsky Palace, National Congress palace, 2008; Diaghilev Center, St. Petersburg State University, 2010 (St. Petersburg); Pushkinskaya 10, 2012 (St. Petersburg); Borey, 2013 (St. Petersburg); Hotel Rachmaninov, 2014 (St. Petersburg); Matiss Club, 2017 (St. Petersburg); Guild of Masters, 2017 (St. Petersburg), etc.^[4][5]

Project member: City as an Artist's Subjectivity (2020).^[6]

Lives and works in St. Petersburg (since 1983).

The artist's works are in the following museum collections/ State Catalogue of the Museum Fund of Russiaa:^[7]

• Hermitage Museum. Hermitage Academic Library/ Rare Books and Manuscripts Sector. (St. Petersburg).^[8]
• Russian Museum. Department of engraving XVIII-XXI centuries. (St. Petersburg)
• National Library of Russia. Department of Prints (St. Petersburg)
• Diaghilev Contemporary Art Museum (St. Petersburg);
• Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. (Moscow). Library/ Artist's Books Dept;
• MISP the Museum of 20th and 21st Century St. Petersburg Art (St. Petersburg);
• Museum of Non-conformist Art Pushkinskaya 10 (St. Petersburg);
• Museum of Urban Sculpture (St. Petersburg).
• Yaroslavl Art Museum;
• Mordovian Republican Museum named after S.D. Erzya (Saransk);
• Astrakhan Art Museum;

• Alexey Parygin A City as the Artist's Subjectivity // Book Arts Newsletter. — No. 140. Bristol: CFPR (Centre for Fine Print Research). University of the West of England, 2021, July–August. — pp. 46–48. ISSN 1754-9086
• City as Artist's subjectivity. Artist's book project. Catalog. Authors of the articles: Parygin A.B., Markov T.A., Klimova E.D., Borovsky A.D., Severyukhin D.Ya., Grigoryants E.I., Blagodatov N.I. (Rus & En) — Saint Petersburg: Ed. T. Markova. 2020. — 128 p. ISBN 978-5-906281-32-6^[9]

Media related to Gafur Mendagaliev at Wikimedia Commons