Parfeniouk's work on display at Museum of Imagination (02/02/03)

Parfeniouk's work on display at Museum of Imagination

HUDSON, N.Y. - The Museum of the Imagination, under the direction of Mikhail Chemiakin, opened its new exhibition titled "The Reaper" on January 11, coinciding with the town's monthly "Gallery Crawl."

The exhibition traces, within its means, the history of the imaging, portrayal and symbolic use of death in drawings, painting and sculpture as manifested in various cultures throughout the last millennium.

As in previous museum exhibitions that evolved from considerations of a specific conceptual theme, (e.g., last year's exhibit focused on "the sphere"), the museum's exhibition space is divided into two sections, with one section given over to original works and artifacts by contemporary artists, and the other, featuring images from Mr. Chemiakin's research into the particular subject.

Taking part in this year's group exhibit, composed of former émigrés as well as American artists, is Gennadiy Parfeniouk, a.k.a. Gepar, a noted Kyiv sculptor who has been affiliated since 1996 with the museum and its parent institution, the Institute of the Philosophy and Psychology of Art. Mr. Parfeniouk's entry is a computer generated triptych titled "Path to Heaven," a conceptualization of the passage from life through physical death to eternity.

A noted Kyiv sculptor who gained recognition and acclaim in the early 1980s in the field of monumental sculpture and sculptural portraiture, Mr. Parfeniouk's work since 1989 has been characterized by general abstraction, specifically, the conceptualization of form and space, and interest in computer-generated art. His work is characterized as a synthesis of architecture and sculpture, with the sphere and its metamorphosis as a key concept in all of his current work.

Mr. Parfeniouk's work was included in the "Artworks in Book Form" issue of the Italian arts catalogue Liberazione, which comes out in Turin under the auspices of the Fondazione Palazzo Bricherasio and is sent out to art galleries worldwide.

This summer Mr. Parfeniouk returned to Ukraine, where he met with his colleagues, leading Ukrainian architects and artists who are engaged in the reconstruction and reconceptualization of the capital in the post-Soviet era. While in Kyiv the artist was engaged in discussions of having his work "Sphere with Cross Inside" installed in the city's center.

A solo exhibit of Mr. Parfeniouk's work, a thematic exhibition devoted to the concept of the sphere as expressed in his graphic work, sculpture and computer images, is to be held in mid-March at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York.

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The Museum of the Imagination is located in Hudson, N.Y., a town that has gained regional recognition as a growing antique and arts center in New York state's Hudson Valley region. The museum is located at 217 Warren St. Museum hours are Saturday and Sunday, noon-5 p.m., by appointment. For additional information call (518) 851-2232 or access the museum's website at: www.imagination.8m.net.

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