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VADIM BORA
Asheville, NC

American Retrospective: Sculptures Paintings & Drawings

Artist statement: [English]

 

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Artist statement: [Russian]

“American Retrospective –
Sculptures, Paintings, & Drawings by Vadim Bora”

Sculptor and painter Vadim Bora defies classification. From monumental sculptures in bronze and terra cotta, to small fine-line pen and ink drawings, Bora depicts universal absolutes with a subtlety that conveys strong emotion, meaning, and purpose.

The artist celebrates a decade in America in “American Retrospective- Sculptures, Paintings, and Drawings by Vadim Bora” here at the Spartanburg Museum of Art.

Originally from North Ossetia - a republic in Russia’s rugged Caucasus Mountains - Bora was embraced by the gentle Blue Ridge of Asheville, North Carolina, where he now maintains a gallery and a thriving studio. The artist moved to the United States over ten years ago, eventually awarded permanent residency by the U.S. Government under the coveted status of “Person with Extraordinary Abilities.”

While living on this side of the Atlantic has imbued Bora’s work with a freshness, vigor, and a passionate freedom of expression, it was Russia and its rigorous classical European art training that influenced Bora in his early artistic upbringing – instilling discipline and the technical mastery to materialize his every concept in any medium.

After graduating from Vladikavkaz College of Art, Bora attended three years of classes of the famed St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, mastering classical realism, and studying from the European masters in the Hermitage Museum and other world class museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

That, mingled with Bora’s rich heritage of folkloric themes native to his homeland in the Northern Caucasus - dating back to the ancient Scythians - has produced an artist of multiple layers, capable of culling the essence of the classics, allegory, humor, and philosophy, as evidenced in this partial retrospective.

The pieces shown here are culled from various bodies of work that represent an amalgam of memory, association, dream, and reality, all rendered in brilliant splashes of color and texture of varying style, once dubbed by a Dutch critic as “Exuberant Expressionism.”

This partial retrospective includes the artist’s figurative sculptures and paintings, evocatively rendered portraits, landscapes and allegorical paintings, and even political satire and humorous compositions.

Bora’s sculptures, particularly his portraits, are true and unique interpretations of the human state, classical or stylized…as the artist sees fit.

Most importantly, in this exhibition Bora allows the audience to experience the transformation of the spark of an idea to its final form of completion on canvas or sculpture, via small sketches, studies, and drawings.

The artist’s works are in the permanent collections of museums in Russia, and in private and corporate collections in over ten countries worldwide. Regionally his public sculptures can be seen in downtown Asheville and Atlanta.

Vadim Bora will exhibit internationally at the Florence Biennale in December 2005.