The Collector | Konstantin Bessmertny’s art celebrates missteps in the messy jumble of life
The Russian artist’s recent work, featured in a Macau Museum of Art show, is a virtuoso display, with the privileged and corrupt the targets of his skilful wrath
Konstantin Bessmertny’s exhibition of recent work at the Macau Museum of Art is a virtuoso display of painting, sculpture, video, installation, doll’s house sized dioramas and stinging one-liners, motifs, graffiti and commentary that focuses on life’s missteps and celebrates the jumble of being alive in a messy world. The privileged and corrupt, with their greed and excesses, bear the brunt of Bessmertny’s big stick while the art market’s primary interest in money runs as a sub-theme throughout the show.
Born in the Soviet Union but having lived in Macau and Hong Kong since 1993, Bessmertny’s Russian political sensibility and the shadow of his family’s repression during Joseph Stalin’s political purges underline the exhibition.
Rather than heavy-handed messages, he employs parody and irony to make his point, beginning with the exhibition title, “Ad Lib”. The Latin term ad libitum literally means “at one’s pleasure” – it equates to freedom and, in music, improvisation. Ironically, it suggests the opposite of much of the exhibition’s targets. It also highlights Bessmertny’s free-form approach to art-making, with his formidable graphic and painting skills.
He may quote serious texts by 19th-century anarchists Mikhail Bakunin and Errico Malatesta but his breezy design sense, skilled technique and retro, varied typefaces ensure a richly layered visual experience.