The exhibition “Once upon a time there was a city” by artist Alexei Mikulin is on display at the Davydkovo gallery of the Moscow Exhibition Halls association. The exhibition will last until August 2, 2024, age limit 0+. The theme of the exhibition was the former Soviet Moscow of Alexei’s childhood and youth. The exhibition features more than 30 works by the artist.
Alexey Mikulin creates his detailed miniatures from ordinary plasticine, which is sold in any store. Sometimes, sculptural plasticine is used as a massive base in his works, but this has its own drawback: the color palette of such material is only four types: olive, flesh-colored, gray and white.
To make the buildings, Alexey uses a cardboard frame to give more strength to the structures.
The clay works are sensitive to dust settling and direct sunlight, so the author protects his works with plexiglass covers.
On average, it takes 100 hours and 1.5 kilograms of clay to make a miniature.
The author recreates images of the deceased, drawing on his vivid memories and childhood photographs.
As a child, Aleksey Mikulin loved to sculpt with clay, but he had to do his homework, and after mental work he had to go for a walk. Then a dream arose: to grow up, buy a lot of clay and sculpt for fun, even for hours on end.
“Many people have a strange attitude towards plasticine. Apparently, in kindergarten they discredit it with all sorts of primitive products like worms and ladybirds, and then, when children grow up, they don’t go back to it. And the material has endless potential.”says Mikulin.
Alexey returned to his childhood hobby 12 years ago, when he began teaching his youngest son to sculpt.
The boy did not last long, but the father did not want to give up what he had started and tried to develop the idea into something alive, for the soul, and after several works he became involved in the creative process.
An artist’s apartment is the place where masterpieces are “born.” The works are everywhere: on tables and shelves mixed with books.
Alexey was born in a communal apartment on Myasnitskaya. He lived there for 30 years and remembered the old Moscow of Soviet times in great detail.
In the series of “communal” works, the interiors are depicted with millimetric precision. Entrance door, small and large rooms, bathroom and kitchen. There are clothes hanging on clotheslines that stretch across the kitchen and there is a telephone and a telephone directory nearby. Chairs, beds, table lamps, pots – all the attributes of Soviet life fit into one work.
Mikulin has lived in Moscow since birth. The historic Sretenka with Sretensky Boulevard, the Red Gate, the tram tunnel in Syromyatniki, Lubyanskaya Square and the Novobasmanny overpass are places that evoke a warm emotional response from the artist.
The artist believes that the most difficult thing in his works is to convey the mood. Judging by the many enthusiastic reviews from viewers who remembered that time, this was largely achieved.
Alexey notes that it is not always possible to fill the work with emotions. Sometimes the work is complex in design and implementation, but soulless.
According to the author, the main thing for him is to convey the atmosphere of the Soviet era. He fills the microsculpture with the microlife of those years. He conveys the atmosphere and the interior with millimetric precision. Everything is very realistic, even if you took a plasticine caricature. By the way, the author is already working in this direction.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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