A composition from the Sociopolis exhibition.

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

N2N Gallery, Abu Dhabi, is hosting “Sociopolis” (Dec. 13, 2020 – Jan 13), an exhibition by renowned Ukrainian artist Andriy Bludov. Bludov is a Ukrainian Postwar & Contemporary painter, born in 1962, who is a Professor of Painting in the Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Kiev. He has been participating in exhibitions worldwide, since 2000. His works can be found in private collections in Russia, Ukraine, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Sumy Art Museum, Khmelnytski Regional Art Museum and the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

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His new series is an attempt to depict how energy looks like: something which we often feel, but do not see. The show tries to show how energy unites the city with invisible threads, tying everything around it to each other.

Bludov perceives city as a living organism, humans as its cells connected with a whole set of living threads, through which energy and information are transmitted.He focuses on the metaphysics of the city, in which houses are represented as graphical cutaways. Through transparent walls, the attributes of human habitation are visible. Looking through the keyhole of the world, at the connecting point of all possible points, one can discern the interconnection of all phenomena in the world.

The bareness and insecurity of the home spaces is an allegory of symbolic vibrations of roads, electric wires, the internet and many other communication channels, at the core of which is the individual.

“With this series”, says Natalya Muzaleva, N2N Founder, “we aim to represent something unique and thought provoking. Bludov’s technique is eye capturing and shall grace your walls, inviting a range of perceptions from any viewer”.

The gallery was born in 2013, with the ambition to help people discover the rich diversity of the European Academic School of Painting, as well as the high professionalism of the contemporary European artists and their art. It presents sculpture, graphic art and paintings in a fusion between realism and modernism. The gallery’s collection is being renewed constantly and it currently comprises over 170 original works, including paintings, graphics and sculptures. Additionally, N2N Gallery also organises art master classes and is interested in enhancing the dialogue within the local art scene. Natalya Muzaleva speaks to Gulf Today about the gallery and more

  Natalya Muzaleva.

What is the aim with which N2N Gallery was established?

N2N Gallery serves as a platform to exhibit and support established to emerging artists from Ukraine and Russia, but not exclusively. We successfully work with South Asian artists in different media. We are genuinely committed to building relationships between artists, art teachers, collectors and specialists.

What have been the achievements of N2N Gallery in the nearly a decade of its career?

We have secured a prominent place in the Abu Dhabi art scene and have our own culture of art that attracts people. We have a magnificent collection of over 100 original artworks at the moment, constantly being renewed, awaiting to surprise our guests. Our artists, Petro Bevza and Alexander Litivinenko, were featured with their collaborative installation artwork “The Grass” at Abu Dhabi Art, one of the most prestigious art fairs in the UAE. Also, we regularly deliver highly structured art classes with professional masters. Besides learning art, the purpose of these classes is students’ moral and individual development as well. The point is not just to improve technical skills, but also how to think, see and reason like an artist, through the guidance of the artist himself.

Have you taken artwork from the Middle East region to East Europe and shown them in exhibitions there?

We did have a very interesting educational project in place with the most prominent Emirati artists; however, it required proper funding and unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

But a few of our students have travelled to Crimea to take part in the educational master classes to learn plein air techniques. 

Do you have many collectors of Middle East art in East Europe? Who are they?

I believe collectors today are looking for a good story, particularly one that bridges the gap between the East and the West through the universal language of art.

Over the past thirty years, where we have cheap travel and digital media which allows us a familiarity with a huge range of information which wasn’t available previously, I would say art, as is always the case, is speaking its own international language.

How strong is the collector base for East European art and artists in the UAE?

It was an instant sensation when we introduced the East European art here and from then on till now, we have a fairly large number of collectors for these artists here in UAE. We have noticed that with the expanding East European community living in UAE, the interest in their art is ever increasing, both in the local population and expatriates, since the UAE is the hub to over 200 nationalities. We all absorb each other’s cultures. There is undoubtedly a huge wealth of artistic talent in Eastern Europe, pre and post USSR. But many of these talented people remain unknown, because they are still poorly represented in the Middle East art market. Therefore, it was a big challenge for me to introduce myself and N2N Gallery to society. And I am grateful for what we have accomplished so far.