About the exhibition "Andrey Chezhin's Key of View" at Béton Centre of Visual Culture. Viewer's impressions
Aleksandr Kurlovic

There are some artists whose style the viewer recognises "on the spot". It could be a technique, a storyline or some typical artistic "tricks". And Andrey Chezhin is undoubtedly one of these artists. Of course, the main marker of his work, as they say, "in the cultural space" is the drawing pin. Of course, we remember playing with Bulla's work, and Nevskaya Kupel as well as many other things, but when we say "Chezhin" we mean "the pin" and there's no getting away from that.

The nice thing is that it is not just a marker, but a tool that works perfectly, with which the artist enters the territories he needs, combines content and meanings, and plays with them. The exhibition "Key of View" demonstrates one of the forms of this play – the omage. Chezhin guides us through a magical labyrinth of riddles and associations. Approaching each work, you are trying to guess the addressee without looking at the signature and then examining the details for a long time. The experience is endlessly fascinating. The works of exhibition, numbering about fifty, are mostly new. This adds interest for experts of the author's work, but also for "new" viewers like me, the pure pleasure is enough.

Andrey Chezhin's photographs (or paintings?) are, first and foremost, beautiful. I have already talked about their second component, mystery, above. Also, they are superbly printed, with the use of various techniques, including, for example, local chemical toning.

In addition I would like to thank Béton for the excellent presentation of the exhibition. The hanging, the lighting – one can only express admiration and confess a certain envy towards the artist.

In summary - another superb exhibition, highly recommended.