“If this is the case – that the world-in-itself paradoxically presents itself to us – then what is it exactly that is presented, what is revealed? Quite simply, what is revealed is the “hiddenness” of the world... This hiddenness is also, in a way, hideous“

Eugene Thacker, “In the Dust of This Planet”

Vladimir Chernyshev (b. 1992, Nizhny Novgorod) works at the intersection of several disciplines - land art, drawing painting and complex installations. The course of his artistic practice is indissolubly linked to the landscape of the city where he was born and where he became an artist. Located in 400 km from Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod is famous for its bewitching scenery - spectacular confluence of the two great rivers, slightly decaying wooden architecture, numerous outstanding street art projects and the self-organised artistic group "Studio Tikhaya" (“Silent Studio”), to which Chernyshev belongs. Here, far away from the rigidity of the capital, his work evokes an obscure, distant, ambivalent, almost ancient world. Although Vladimir has participated in number of solo and group exhibitions across Europe, including the European Nomadic Biennial Manifesta (2014) his work has remained largely unknown for international audience. 

Alternating studio practice and land art, Chernyshev's projects are based on the contrast between the world-in-itself and the human (human and non-human world). That refers to both the holistic visual language and the techniques used to create them. He constantly experiments with materials and their combinations, subjecting them to endless transformations and giving them changeable meanings. The emphasis in the artist's choice of materials (wood, tar, metal, glass, plaster) often shifts to the revelation of the tragedy of its subtle erasure.

One of the most prominent projects illustrating this approach of Chernyshev's practice is the so-called 'Suburban Practices' (from 2013 onwards) It comprises works mostly located near Nizhny Novgorod in a largely abandoned, semi-demolished, unnamed summerhouse community. Spread around the garden, in one way or another, the drawings and installations address the ongoing disappearance of a cultural landscape; many of the works themselves have already disappeared. 

The fact that the artist links the perception of time and space and their refraction in his works to Romanticism, and its key figures (above all to Caspar David Friedrich) is fundamental for his artistic practice. This also connects the project to Dresden, given the Romantic dimension of the city's history and the forthcoming 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich, which will be marked by the opening of a major monographic exhibition in two venues of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - the Albertinum and the Kupferstich-Kabinett. 

The project for Kunstverein Dresden brings together works created by the artist between 2022 and today, including a work created in situ.

Gefördert durch die Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen, die Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden, das Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz Dresden, das Goethe Institut sowie die Artwin Gallery.