Works by homeless artist Valery Lyashkevich on display in Minsk

Works by homeless artist from Gomel Valery Lyashkevich are displayed in Minsk for the first time. The vernissage took place at the Belarusian National Art Museum.

For Gomel residents the homeless old man with blue eyes drawing “pictures” in the streets is a local curiosity. For fine art experts Valery Lyashkevich is a phenomenon, an artist who is worth paying attention to.

Valery Lyashkevich studied at the art schools of Yaroslavl and Bryansk, attended courses at the Ilya Repin Saint Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. Since then he became peripatetic artist travelling between Saint Petersburg that gave him priceless cultural experience and his native Gomel. Today the streets of the Belarusian city are home to the artist. For 20 years he has been taking shelter at the railway station underground passages and on the benches in tranquil city districts. His workshops are stair halls, the left-luggage office of the railway station, sometimes even concrete plates in the streets.

The artist brought to Minsk 25 works dedicated to a philosophical issue forming the focus of Lyashkevich’s creative activity - the conflict of the opposites and the problem of choice. The artist used different materials to create the paintings: graphite, acrylic paints, ball-point pens. The works depict evanescent images from the artist’s life.

The vernissage attracted much public attention. It featured the Crossroads documentary movie by Anastasia Miroshnichenko describing the life of the Gomel artist. “The works of Valery Lyashkevich attract much attention as he belongs to the subculture of outcast artists. In Gomel everyone knows him,” said Nadezhda Usova, Deputy Director for Research of the National Art Museum.

Valery Lyashkevich’s paintings are kept in the funds of the National Art Museum, the Gomel Palace and Park Ensemble, the Zaslavl history and culture museum-reserve, and in private collections in Belarus, Russia, the European countries, and the USA.

The residents and visitors of Minsk can get acquainted with the works of the unusual artist till 27 January. Visitors to the exhibition will have an opportunity to buy reproductions of Valery Lyashkevich’s paintings. The money will be passed to the artist.