BELARUSIAN

You may watch the video interview version here.

"The Mourning Period" / 2020 / oil on linen / 70 x 90 cm

"The Crusaders"

«There's Nobody Here» / 2020 / oil on linen / 50 x 70 cm

Happy Death Society

"The photo story about my maternal grandmother Helena (2010 — 2019)".

From the series "Happy Death Society" / 1

From the series "Happy Death Society" / 2

From the series "Happy Death Society" / 3

From the series "Happy Death Society" / 4

From the series "Happy Death Society" / 5

From the series "Happy Death Society" / 6

From the series "Happy Death Society" / 7

From the series "Happy Death Society" / 8

From the series "Happy Death Society" / 9

The Lost

«On his canvases Anro paints the portraits of people who have gone missing without trace. Mostly, they are the expressive transposition of photographs (mug shots type) found on several information resources, attached as evidence to the human drama of the person who disappeared and told in tones that vary from the aseptic factual style of a police report to the overemotional detective-like tale of a newspaper article. When represented on canvas the somatic features of these people's faces lose their "photographic" accurateness. Anro's paintbrush blurs the details of the human face to enliven the drama which the mass media relish to write about, often with a degree of cynicism that transcends the borders of human empathy. Against their own will, these people are caught into a disquieting paradox: when someone disappears without trace in the real world, he or she enters the circus-like world of the mass media. Broadcasted all around the world, these faces belong now to news reports which capitalize on the drama in order to get viewers and readers' attention. However, Anro is not interested in denouncing the vulture-like behavior of the mass media. His paintbrush focuses instead on the human side of the drama; on the condition of being lost to the world. A face can no longer be the exact equivalent of the picture that the press or the police keep showing to generate interest. We found ourselves in the realm of the state of mind in which a missing person finds himself/herself, not in that of how the missing person looks like when in front of a video or photo camera.

Quite poignantly, these people are not of the same sex, nationality, or social class. They are "citizens of the world"; they live in the "global village" of the world wide web».

Antonio Geusa, 2016

From the series "Lost" / 1

From the series "Lost" / 2

From the series "Lost" / 3

From the series "Lost" / 4

From the series "Lost" / 5

The Belarusian Context

"The Microphone" / 2020 / oil on homemade linen / 35 х 50 cm

Viktar Hanchar / 2020 / oil on homemade linen / 35 х 45 cm

Yury Zacharanka / 2019 / oil on homemade linen / 35 х 35 cm

"The New World" / 2017 / oil_on_canvas / 180 х 150 cm

"The Walk"

"The Negotiating Table"

CV:
Andrey Anro abbreviated Anro is a Belarusian artist and photographer from Smorgon, Belarus.

Lives and works in Smorgon, Belarus.

In 2007 he graduated MMT L.B. Krasina (Moscow, Russia), speciality "Advertising".

Author of the book "21 glasses. Yogesh's stories which were recorded by Anro" publishing "Trimedia Content".

From 2007 to 2012 Anro engaged in photography, takes a series of "Dissomnia" where the artist reinterprets Belarusian folklore.

Since 2013 Anro begins to engage in painting, creates a series «The Lost», where portraits of missing people were used as the material for work. Then the artist starts to work for project «Face in Shadow», where he uses political images in the prism of mythology and visualizes them using figurative painting.

In 2015 he created a series of graphic works "The New World", the "The New World" magazine's pages (the magazine of the late 80's) were used at the basic of it. The series studied the theme of utopia of the Soviet time and nostalgia for utopia in the post-Soviet society.

Solo Exhibitions:
202017 — "Screenshot" (Moscow, Russia, gallery Triangle)
2017 — "Untitled" (Minsk, Belarus, A&V gallery)
2016 — "Memory Game" (Moscow, Russia, gallery Triangle)
2015 — "In Big Shadow" (Minsk, Belarus, creative space "СEСH")
2011 — "Dissomnia" (Smorgon, Belarus)

Group Exhibitions:
202019 — "Genitive" (Minsk, Belarus, National Center for Contemporary Arts)
2018 — "Here and now" (Minsk, Belarus, space "Squat")
2015 — "# SOFTNORM" (Moscow, Russia, ARTPLAY center)
2015 — "Made By", (Minsk, Belarus, Gallery "Palace of art")
2014 — "The memory of the shadows" (Minsk, Belarus, Gallery "Palace of art")
2014 — "Alphabet" (Gomel, Belarus, GH Vaschenko Gallery)
2013 — "Becoming an artist" (Minsk, Belarus, Gallery of Modern Art "Ў")
2013 — "Structuring" (Minsk, Belarus, Gallery of Modern Art "Ў")
2013 — "Exhibition under the Agro-Cultural Festival" (Minsk, Belarus, Gallery of Modern Art "Ў")
2010 — "Foto-Future" (Moscow, Russia, WINZAVOD Contemporary Art Center)
2009 — "Belarus - are we" (Minsk, Grodno)
2009 — "Project 11" (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
2009 — "European Belarus" (Minsk)
2008 — "The Best Photos Foto.ru Club members for the year 2008" (Moscow, Russia)
2007 — "Belarus, we will not see tomorrow" (Minsk, Belarus)

Art Fairs:
2017 — «START Art Fair» (London, England, A&V gallery)
2016 — «viennacontemporary» (Vienna, Austria, gallery Triangle)

All materials are taken from the official site of the artist

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Reprinting of material is allowed only with the permission of the publisher

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