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Elena Gubanova and Ivan Govorkov, «Delicate Vibration»
22 Decembre 2004 – 6 February 2005
 Elena Gubanova
Elena Gubanova was born in Ulyanovsk in 1960. From 1976 to 1979 she was a student at the Johanson Secondary school, at the Repin Institute in Leningrad. Then from 1980 to 1986 she endured instruction at the studio of E.E. Moiseenko at the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, department of painting. She set out on her artistic journey as a bright representative of the «Left Leningrad Union of Artists» in the late «80's. Armed with a substantial professional education which trains the eye and hand but tends to restrict the freedom of creative mind, the paintress took it long to find her own niche on the art scene of St Petersburg. Elena has never belonged to any creative associations and groups, frequently working together with her husband, Ivan Govorkov. Lately Gubanova has been increasingly more on her own and more liberated when trying herself in various visual arts. But this path of a «lonely wolf» can be a hard one at times, though surely is more productive. Her creative intentions develop along the «spiritual abstraction line». This is an agglutination of rich textures, various materials, composite volumes and unusual colour solutions. The artist uses the possibilities of colour very freely and achieves very intricate combinations of very rich (I would say — «semiotic») sound referring the viewer to the Russian icon (series of «Grand Apostles», «The Twelve» and many others). Or it may be the minimalist touches of grey, a gradation of black, or a complete absence of colour, when light and shades substitute for the colour (series of objects: «Filtration of White Noise»). Her installations are also noteworthy. It is the sound installation «Vanya, get back home!» (together with Govorkov). It is her latest series of box-objects which is created on the principle of deceptive tactile perceptions and expectations of the viewer. Gubanova works hard on wood to reveal its organic nature, it naturalness and closeness to man. This testifies to her urge to follow and elicit the objective laws of natural formation and to avoid violence and escapade. Her artworks are essentially very humane, very natural and, owing to this innermost feature, they seem very topical in the aggressive society of ours.
Ivan Govorkov
Ivan Govorkov is a clearly intellectual type of an artist, given to meaningful and expressive paradoxes. The Mцbius strip may constitute the symbol of his oeuvre. He makes use of various materials and technical forms (graphics, easel and monumental painting, sculpture), which distinguishes him from many other conceptualists. Having mastered the pictorial languages of classics and modernity, he embarks on the borderline of the incompatible, thus reintroducing the West-East problem, which is so crucial for the Russian nationalism.
He was born on 20 June 1949 in Leningrad (St Petersburg). In 1974 he graduated from the Repin School (the monumental painting studio), he worked at the studio of the Academy of Fine Arts under the direction of Professor A. Mylnikov (1974–80). He holds a tenure (associate professor) at the Repin School, studio of drawing. He is a member of The Union of Artists of St Petersburg, of The International Union of Artists at UNESCO. He has participated in various exhibitions held in Russia, Germany, France, Finland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark. Since 1990 he has worked and exhibited his works together with Elena Gubanova.
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