Exhibition “Thoughts of Home – Cultural Identity and the Evolution of an Artist” opens Friday, Feb. 26

PRESS RELEASE:

Thoughts of Home – Cultural Identity and the Evolution of an Artist

Asheville Area Arts Council
1 Page Avenue | Suite 143A | Asheville, NC | 28801
Monday – Saturday | 10:00am – 6:00pm

Showcasing works by the late VADIM BORA and a sampling from colleagues in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia (the late Murat Kaboulov, Natalia Abaeva, and Akhsar Esenov) – Sculpture, Paintings, Applied Arts An exhibition in partnership with Asheville Sister Cities, Inc.

Opening receptions: February 26, 5:00 – 8:00pm and March 4, 5:00 – 8:00pm

This exploratory exhibition examines the narrative work of Vadim Bora and three fellow-Vladikavkaz artists (Asheville’s first Sister City in the Caucasus Mountains of Southern Russia). The exhibition will include several never-before seen works that have been in private collections, as well as large commissioned pieces, sculptures, stained glass design, and jewelry — some appearing for the first time — each thematically connect to Thoughts of Home.

Curated by the artist’s widow, the exhibition explores “what is home” to an artist who has physically left “home.” Is it simply a place, a state of mind? And how does the concept change the longer one is away and when does the new physical settlement become home? The exhibition is a look at the notion of home through the eyes of those who have wandered far…and compared to those who never left.

While Vadim Bora was known for his public art sculptures, expressive oil portraits, satirical pen and ink drawings, lush landscapes and nudes, it is his exuberant narrative works depicting allegorical village scenes, informed by his growing up in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia, that are recalled by many.

This body of work referenced memories, village tales, traditions, fables and the mythos of the North Ossetia region where Bora lived for much of his life. While Bora left his home briefly for higher learning (St. Petersburg, then called Leningrad) and ultimately for the U.S., settling in Asheville in 1993, the exploration of the “home” theme continued until his untimely passing in 2011.

Likewise, the connection to home appeared often in colleague Murat Kaboulov’s work. Some 17 years Bora’s senior, the artist had moved from Vladikavkaz to Nashville in 1992. Passing only five months before Bora, Kaboulov also left a formidable legacy of artworks, curated largely now by his widow Marina Kaboulova. Several large-scale works depicting village celebration and reverie are showcased in the exhibition.

Curator Constance Richards invited two additional artists to participate in the exhibition, Natalia Abaeva and Akhsar Esenov, both of whom visited Asheville ten years ago with a grant through the Open World program via Asheville Sister Cities that Richards helped organize.

These young artists decades younger than the two aforementioned masters, explore Thoughts of Home from a different point of view. Abaeva now lives in Bulgaria, but easily traverses the borders, having moved only recently. Esenov lives in Vladikavkaz and exhibits his paintings throughout Europe. Their world of home is a different world entirely than that of Bora and Kaboulov at the time they left. Thoughts of Home – Cultural Identity and the Evolution of an Artist examines how all these factors affect the artists work, process and lifeblood.

For more information please visit www.ashevillearts.com or call us at 828.258.0710