VALERY BYTKA. MOLDOVAN SUN ABOVE NEVA
The debut project of the Flor et Lavr gallery opens the door to the fairy-tale world of the sculptor, actor and director Valery Konstantinovich Bytka.
The favorite material, which, according to the author, made him fall in love with St. Petersburg after many years of antipathy, - the Pudost stone - has special properties: an amazing palette of colorful inclusions of colored sands and clays, which never repeats, allows you to create each work only in a single copy ...
The almost magical features of this warm and soulful material, which has been used since ancient times in construction in the Slavic territories, give the sculptor a reason to put this limestone on a par with Ural gems and antique cameos.
The creative method of Valery Konstantinovich is based, on the one hand, on the Moldovan traditions of stone carving, on the other hand, on the pictorial technique of transferring form with color. Scrupulously studying the individual color ratios of the paint layers, the author reveals his own plot in each stone and brings out red wine, blue eggplants, fruits glowing with the Moldovan sun or the snow-covered Summer Garden and the Admiralty spire, sparkling with yellow gold.
The main part of the exposition will be a St. Petersburg series of sculptures with an amazing feature - the limestone from which they are made is itself a museum exhibit. Ancient stones, witnesses of various epochs and city events - fell from the foundation, once served as steps or cladding of Petersburg houses - in the hands of the master they acquired a new look and life. Wooden statues that take the imagination to Moldovan villages, distinguished by their colorfulness and variety of decorative carvings, are made of various types of wood. Oak, cherry and elm with their properties emphasize the individual characteristics of fictional characters.
