Exhibitions

Natalya Lyakh

Nataliya Lyakh is by all means a contemporary artist. There is nothing forced or final in the geography or her life, as there isn't in leaving the Russian art scene for Paris and New-York gallery spaces.

Nataliya Lyakh is by all means a contemporary artist. There is nothing forced or final in the geography or her life, as there isn't in leaving the Russian art scene for Paris and New-York gallery spaces. Every so often she returns to Russia in order to present yet another project in a fashionable St.-Petersburg gallery, at the Art Moscow fair or, like today, within ROSFOTO's walls.
Lyakh's undoubted predilection for ‘pragmatic task' over ‘statement', her no less obvious recognition of the artist's mind as the only reality, her free use of the possibilities of video art medium give a clear evidence that her works can be attributed to contemporary art.
As to Nataliya Lyakh's background, her investigations in neurolingustics not only inspire respect but characterize her as the contemporary of the time that obliges an artist to educate himself and go beyond reflection, out into the world of multiple interactions driven by sign, biology and physiology. Which happens to be the research interests of Nataliya Lyakh the scientist.
It's another matter that playing a new role in the same grounds, Lyakh the artist behaves herself with feasible looseness, not seeing it fit to present her artworks as illustrations of some theoretical constructions and ideas. As to her own ideas, she expresses and puts them into life with consistent independence. 
One of such ideas is literally phrased as an image of darkness as a synonym of collective consciousness and a ‘cone of light' representing an individual, artistic mind. 
The explanation of inevitable fear of darkness as originating in man's ability to populate it with phantoms, is deflated with cruel irony. One needs to just pull out of darkness the first object caught by the lens. It can be, for example, a match box, and what's frightening is rather the persistence of its shadow that turns out to be far more real than the object itself.
Nataliya Lyakh's favorite theme is the enigmatic ability of substance to be completely unrecognizable. Ski tracks on the snow turn out to be kin to the world of prokaryotic micro-organisms, the ones we patronizingly name bacteria. A crumpled sheet of paper equals to a mountain peak bathing in the sun rays. The gas and dust of the Galaxy's interstellar matter are discovered in a garbage bag. 
Tatyana Chernigovskaya, a prominent Russian biologist, linguist and psychologist, commented in her writings about qualitative differences between human cerebral hemispheres: ‘it remains, however, unclear, what perceptual unity involves, what exactly is analyzed and in what way'. Could it be that her student is looking for an answer?
Sergei Radlov

 Natalya Lyakh

Born in Saint-Petersburg, Russia
1984-1985: Secondary Art School, Saint-Petersburg Arts Academy, Preparatory Division
1985: Developed an interest in black & white photography
1985-1992: Saint-Petersburg State University, Department of Structural & Applied Linguistics. Scientific experiments in the field of neurolinguistics at the Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology & Biochemistry 
1989: Began a series of color photographs on Hungary
1990-1992: Thematic series of black & white photographs
1992-1995: Postgraduate studies at the Saint-Petersburg State University, further research leading to a Ph.D. in neuro-linguistics. First experiments with video. Continued with black & white photography
1996-1998: Short video art films (shooting, editing and mixing music/sounds). Series of thematic color photographs on New York, London, Turkey, Italy and other subjects. Submissions to and publication in several Moscow photography magazines. Worked as a curator in video clubs and film programs 
1999: June: participated Rencontres Internationales Hors-Circuit Paris-Berlin, Paris. September: International contemporary art group show "Tomorrow Conceptual Nostalgia", Monterrey, Mexico.
2000: January: artshow "Reflections", Miami, USA.
June: artshow "Minding", Geneva, Switzerland. October: artshow "Rad Art", Paris
November: artshow "Arts photographiques", Paris '
November: photo artshow "PHOTOBIS 2000", Paris.December:"En Garde", Parsons Gallery, Paris
2001: March: Photo artshow, University of New Sorbonne, Rencontres Internat Hors-Circuit Paris-Berlin, Paris 
June: Photo-video-perfomance, artshow "OGM", Espace Crimée, Paris
June: Rencontres Internationales Hors-Circuit, Paris-Berlin Festival, Berlin
November: Salon de la photographie, Salle Olympe de Gouges, Paris 
2002: July: French Video Program in „Sad", Moscow
November: Red Shift Film Festival, Anthology Film Archive, New York 
2003: March: Hors-Circuit Paris-Berlin Film Festival, Paris. April: Espace Washington steet, New York
October: Group show at Gallery Iragui, Paris. November: Hors-Circuit Paris-Berlin Film Festival, Berlin
December: artshow at gallery L'Entrepot, Paris
2004: January: Red Shift Film Festival, Anthology Film Archive, NYC; April: Gallery Nichido, Nagoya, Japan
June: Artshow with gallery Iragui at Museum of Arcitecture, Moscow, Russia
July: Projection at Tryptique, Paris; participation Reel Venus Film Festival, NYC
October: Participation with gallery La Blanchisserie in La FIAC, Paris
2005: January : Personal photo-video show at LA Blanchisserie, Paris
January: Videos at "Divan du Monde", Paris. March: Videos, Espace Atlas. Paris
May: Gallery Benamou (Paris) and Gallery Gisich (St.Petersburg) - ArtMoscow
June: Rome Art Doc Festival, Rome. September: Kansk Film Festival, Russia
October: Personal show at Freud's Dream Museum and Gisich Gallery, St.Petersburg; Nuit Blanche, Paris 
November: Starz Denver International Film Festival, USA ;Film screening, Ambassade Française, Moscow
2006: January: Videos at "Divan du Monde". February: Photos,Videos at L.U.V Gallery, Paris
March-April: Participation Photobiennale in Moscow, "Open World" Gallery
April: Artshow, festival "Crescendo", Russian Museum, St.Petersburg
June: Group show, Espace "Art et Liberte", Show at Heart Gallery, Paris
September: Videos, Nuit Blanche, Paris
2007: November-January: "Un monde non-ojectif en Photographie", Thessa Herold Gallery, Paris
May: "Caravansarai" Tashkent, "ArtMoscow", Moscow, Biennale of Contemporary Art
Thessaloniki, Greece ; August: Karsi Sanat Gallery, Istanbul; October: Istanbul Art Biennale;

November : ArtFair "DIVA" Paris; December: "Pulse" , Miami
2008: March: Videoformes, HeartGallery, Clermont-Ferrand
April-May: Show at National Center of Photography RF, St.Petersburg
Currently live in Paris. Languages: Russian, English, French, Italian, Japanese