Featured Artist Ivan Lebedev

Russian-born artist Ivan Lebedev uses photography to make connections by sharing his visual interpretation and restructuring chaos. See more of his work by visiting his website.

 

 

I was born fifty-eight years ago in Yaroslavl, an ancient city not far from Moscow, Russia.

 

 

I currently live in two places, but I spend more time in New Haven, Connecticut, then in Moscow. In 1993, I received a PhD as a psychiatrist, but I have been involved in photographic arts for more than thirty-five years, which has significant personal meaning for me.

 

 

I’ve been practicing photography since I was eight years old. As a youth, I was fascinated with manipulating and transforming images. There were two technological breakthroughs that greatly affected my art—the first was personal computers with graphic processors in the early nineties. This impressed me so much that I quit my photography experiments. The second breakthrough was the development of digital photography. This is when I began using mixed media with my photography.

 

 

For the last few years, I have found inspiration in the manipulation of vintage photos. I make them into pieces of art by putting them in contemporary and even unperceived and unconsciousness contexts. Sometimes I do nothing, or just a minimal amount of work, such as enlarging the photos and printing them on various materials like aluminum foil or other unusual surfaces.

 

 

Currently, I am working on creating portraits of strange people in a strange way by applying different techniques. The ultimate art adventure for me is to create portraits of dolls and almost invisible, unknown people, like the old vintage photographs in which the figures appear partially obliterated.

 

 

It’s hard to explain what I do; it is easier to see my work for an explanation.

 

 

“Nine Portraits of My Self-Made Doll,” for example, appears to be straightforward and simple, but for me it`s quite provocative—it represents the end of human portraiture, similar to how the “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich changed the ideas of representational painting. The homemade doll with its simple face is changing under the effects of the different amount of light in each square. The emotion in her face is changing too. Originally, I made this doll with the idea of taking only one picture to be used as an illustration for an art book, but I ended up doing little bit more.

 

 

This work is in keeping with my other portraits, “Sixteen Elephanties,” “Personal Solution,” “Like Us on a Facebook” and others.

 

 

I have exhibited in galleries in the United States, including three solo exhibitions, and have also illustrated some art books. In 2012-2016 I worked in collaboration with Mikhail Magaril, a New York City based artist. We exhibited together several times as well as published several books, some of which were acquired by the Library of Congress and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

 

I believe that the photographic process is a material essence for self-expression, like canvas or marble. It’s one of the easiest ways to arrange the visual chaos around me, articulate the hidden harmony within us and share my feelings with others. Just feelings, not thoughts.

 

Artist Ivan Lebedev invites you to follow him on Facebook.

 

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