Yuri Gorbachev Exhibition

2011 has been a remarkable year for internationally known artist Yuri Gorbachev, cousin of the former Russian Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, filled with many great honors, awards and invitations to explore his unique talent in expansive creative ways. There is a new museum that has collected his work, a ballet company that has commissioned his designs, and a vodka company using Yuri's painting as a label whose promotion is circling the globe in duty free airport boutiques. The folkloric charm of his classically Russian inspired art resonates worldwide with an appreciation of his paintings and magical imagery. The jewel like palette, the high gloss of his deeply enameled surfaces and joyful expression of fairytale subjects makes his work both instantly lovable and recognizable.
 
With record attendance at Yuri Gorbachev’s opening reception coinciding with The Byrne Gallery’s 16th Anniversary celebration, we applaud his lifetime achievements in a continuing exhibition through the holidays until Dec. 31. The gallery began exhibiting Gorbachev‘s vivid oil and enamel paintings in 2004.  We are proud to offer the most exciting work to date for his eighth one-person show. New paintings from his 2011 museum exhibits in both New York and St. Petersburg will be featured. The exhibition is open to the public.
 
Gorbachev was delighted to learn that his painting Czar Nikolai Alexandrovich with His Family, 50 x 66 inches, 1996, was selected for the permanent collection of the State Museum of Russian Art in St Petersburg. Often called The Russian Museum, it is the largest and most important collection of Russian art in the world.
 
In this exhibition at the Byrne Gallery, his paintings are from the Romanov Dynasty series, which are similar in subject matter and quality to the one selected by the Russian Museum. He began this collection of paintings in 1991 and continues today. This is the first time that these paintings will be exhibited in a private gallery since they have been shown only in museums until this time.
 
This year has been an extraordinarily productive year for Gorbachev. He was commissioned by Stolichnaya to create a new elite bottle and label called Four Elements by Yuri Gorbachev. His painting Four Elements provided the inspiration for the new bottle and label and has been advertised and promoted worldwide. It has become popular and has been featured at airport events moving from Beirut to London to various European airports and coming to the United States shortly. He will have the new Stolichnaya bottles on display at this Byrne Gallery exhibition on display. In the tradition of Absolut Vodka's creative advertising campaigns using cultural icons like Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Gorbachev himself for their famous campaigns to promote their brand, Stolichnaya Vodka did a series of Christmas campaigns with his paintings as advertisements in the 1990s and have again chosen Gorbachev to represent their brand by designing their new label for Stolichnaya Red Vodka, Four Elements by Yuri Gorbachev. Michel Roux, the former CEO of Carillon Importers, distributors of Absolut and then Stolichnaya Vodka in the United States, described Yuri Gorbachev as "...the Angel from Russia. He brings out whatever is good from there. The spirit, the subject matter, and the colors of his work-profound in their simplicity-exemplify what Russia is all about."
 
This Yuri Gorbachev Byrne Gallery Exhibition continues through the holiday season until Dec. 31. The gallery is located at 7 W. Washington St. in Middleburg. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays are by appointment.