Ivan Galeri (1996) is an artist and assistant director of the ART-KM Gallery at Moscow Gostiny Dvor. Illustrator, engraver, researcher of symbolism and secret societies. Creator of the art projects "Postcards of the Worlds" and "Black Cube". More than 200 prints of limited edition prints are kept in private collections and funds in Russia, Europe and America.
My creative path is a history of search, personal tragedy and mystical twists and turns of fate. As long as I live, I feel myself as a wanderer, moving between light and darkness in my creative search. Since my early childhood I have been accompanied by images, with which I invented a fun - to find interesting objects and, folding them properly, to get unusual shapes, faces, objects in their shadows. Later I learned the word - illusion. The older I grew, the more complex images I began to find, and as it turned out, shadow and light permeate our entire existence, wonderfully manifesting themselves in words, behavior, events, and surrounding reality. Understanding this truth was the second revelation. The first revelation of a young mind, leafing through a collection of biblical illustrations by H. Dore and examining a homemade reproduction of Leonardo Da Vinci's Madonna Litta, was the idea that I myself could depict the images captured by the eye. Higher education offered me yet another revelation through philosophy, which revealed the essence of Socratic learning system - heuristics, and psychology, which explained the phenomenon - pareidolia. I dropped out of university for ideological and target-oriented reasons. Continued my artistic practice. The decisive link in the puzzle of destiny was acquaintance with the works of American ethnographer, Doctor of Philosophy in anthropology, esoteric thinker, and author of 12 best-selling books by Carlos Castaneda. All the knowledge I received formed the basis of the author's concept of artistic expression that was being formed. I was shocked when I first saw I. Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights", F. Goya's "Dream of Reason" and "Saturn", W. Blake's "Red Dragon", A. Dürer's "melancholia" and "horsemen of the apocalypse" and P. Brueghel's "Seven Deadly Sins". The list could go on and on, but it's not that extensive. So, spending hours looking at paintings and prints by masters of the past, I catch myself thinking: "You are either an equal among the first, or you dissolve at the margins of history. This dilemma contains the formula for immortality. It turns out that everything is possible, all that is left is to work the rough stone and pour gold out of lead. Therein lies the main revelation. I was able to find my key, it was waiting for me between the lines of Carlos Castaneda's books.
Ivan Kelarev (1996) is an artist and the head of the Dresden Art Gallery. Illustrator, engraver, researcher of symbolism and secret societies. Creator of the art projects "Postcards of the Worlds" and "Black Cube". More than 200 prints of limited edition prints are kept in private collections and funds in Russia, Europe and America.
