Solo Exhibitions

On the one hand, the artist paints like peasant masters: the colours are strong, very contrasting. This might be a risky strategy for any other experimenter in this field, but not for Berezikov. He animates the entire work. Each piece is so alive that it can be recognised even from a distance of 100 feet.

But there is another risk that the artist faces — his themes. Many works touch upon the problems of the Cosmos or metaphysical problems (after all, he was born in the age of the Cosmos!). Such are "The One Walking into Infinity," "Thought on Eternity," and many other works. They might have seemed as ideological as a depiction of a sculpture of Soviet labour, but this does not happen, because this artist has a sharp mind and a great deal of humour. Even when he is serious, he still wants to show us his tongue — all this is in the spirit of our time, and yet there is not the slightest cynicism here; the overall tonality of these rough, sharp, yet complete paintings is inner happiness — of this there is no doubt.

Works such as "The People" and "Black Apples" are extremely inventive in their form. "Adam and Eve," "Running Dogs," and "Acid Rains Are Falling" prove that this artist is a man who belongs only to himself, and not anyone's mouthpiece.

Art Critic, former director of the Delhi Museum of Painting

The exhibition features 91 works. This is Berezikov's first major appearance as an artist here in Yekaterinburg. He has visited the city many times before and is well known to its residents through his author's meetings and the books he has published. It is worth noting that today some of Berezikov's canvases are exhibited in museums abroad and in Moscow. The current exhibition brings together the quintessence of the artist's pictorial work, where step by step one can trace the leading idea — the path from the beginning of the purification of human reason to the ascension of the spirit. The subjects of the works are varied and at times unexpected — ranging from the everyday to the global problems of the universe.

The colour solutions in his works are literally stunning in their boldness and complete freedom in the use of dazzlingly bright tones. Colour plays an important role in Berezikov's composition: it serves to emphasise the main idea that the author wished to express. Not everyone is given the ability to feel colour.

With hearts, blind from birth!

It is precisely to such chosen ones that Evgeny Berezikov belongs. But colour in the artist's work lies, after all, on the surface — while the main thing is the philosophical meaning, deep and enduring, discernible in the paintings through symbols or images, sometimes allegorical.

Friends and admirers of the artist came to the opening of the exhibition from Ufa, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, and Magnitogorsk. They have known Evgeny Berezikov for many years, not only as an artist, but also as a writer, traveler, and enlightener.

A man of quite extraordinary character, he has created more than 900 canvases, written more than 30 books, travelled around the entire world, and visited the historical sites of India, Egypt, Great Britain, Mexico, and Tibet. Furthermore, Evgeny Berezikov constantly speaks to audiences in various cities of Russia, as well as in neighbouring and distant countries.

No. 73 (337)

The large exhibition hall of the Museum of Fine Arts could hold only a small fraction of his works — no more than eighty (in his 13-year "painting" life, Evgeny Efimovich had created about a thousand works).

To some of his paintings, Berezikov attached explanatory texts, but he also readily explained the meaning of one or another canvas to visitors: a boy takes a bite of an apple — no one yet knows whether the fruit is sweet or not... A salamander looks straight at you, but if you turn away — it's gone... I sit high on a mountain — from there one can learn many things...

Alongside works of a cosmic nature were amazing and exotic birds and animals: "My Little Elephant," "The Great Bird of Happiness," "Boy Playing with Wolf Cubs." Visitors could also view photographs of the numerous journeys undertaken by this native of the Tomsk region — artist, writer, enlightener, and traveller. Particularly memorable was the photograph of sun-drenched apricots, which the hermit had savoured in the Pamirs, spending three years alone, discharging himself from the hustle and bustle of society. It was there, in seclusion, that he painted his amazing, unpretentious pictures, which ultimately lead one to philosophical reflection.

It was a positive kind of envy. A big man in a Mexican hat, with a stone amulet on his broad chest, in a carelessly draped Latin American scarf, spoke about the filming of documentary chronicles about Mexico, Italy, Tibet, the Holy Land, and Egypt. The cameraman for these video works was right there, not far from the author. Sergei was explaining something to a visitor who had not yet warmed up from the street cold. Berezikov listed the titles of his published books and the countries he had visited; he recalled the names of famous people with whom he had been fortunate to be friends. Around this solar man, journalists and guests of the exhibition clustered. They seemed unwilling to break the enchanted circle of warmth and light created by the wonderful travels, visions, and paintings of Evgeny Berezikov.

No. 67 (2672)