SOLOVKI /Arkhangelsk Region/, September 20. /TASS Correspondent Irina Skalina/. The Art Coast exhibition opened on the Solovki [archipelago] (the Solovetsky Islands) following a contemporary art symposium, which the Solovki archipelago hosted on September 8. Nine artists worked for a week to present their works at the exhibition.

"We exhibit 13 different works: abstract works, works in bright colors, and even a work with fluorescent paints. Their topic is common - the Solovki coast," Modern Media's Director and the organizers' representative Yulia Malakhovskaya told TASS. "For a few days, the artists learned about the Solovki, gained inspiration to paint and express their vision of the islands."

Artists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Arkhangelsk and Crimea have come to the archipelago. Andrey Orlov from Yalta (Crimea) has come to the Solovki for the first time, as he told TASS, adding he had imagined the northern islands completely different. "I've seen photos, read, and I thought everything here is very gray," he explained. The Solovki turned out to be unexpectedly bright. Normally, it is chilly and rainy in mid-September, but this year the air temperature is about +20 degrees C, the sun is shining, and the leaves are still green.

The artist said he was strongly impressed by the monastery, which walls are made of huge boulders. "Not just its beautiful architecture, but its reflection in the water surface, in the lake, and in the sea," he said showing the painting. "The main object is the cross, because it is a sign that, for obvious reason, is everywhere here. The crosses are wooden, of iron and, of course, the domes. I wanted to convey that it is not just the beauty of nature, but that here, in such a fragment in a corner, continue lives of people who have been prisoned here, who were serving their sentences here. But the cross covers everything. And I wanted to show that joy, to show how light overcomes any darkness." The painting is in bright colors: orange, yellow and red, like the sunset on the islands.

Sunrises and sunsets have inspired another artist - Dmitry Trubin from Arkhangelsk. He painted two identical works The Shore of Dancing Birches: one in colors of sunset, the second - of the rising sun. On his third painting is a colorful cat, the coast keeper, the artist said. The cat is a composite portrait of the symposium participants, he added.

The Land of Stones

Marina Shchelokova from Moscow was inspired by the Solovki stones. They are everywhere - the bases of buildings, and the islands in general. In her works, all stones are different, they attract imaginative view: some look like faces or fish, some stones with images of landscape or look like an artistic miniature. "I have never seen such beautiful, peculiar, interesting and dissimilar stones, and no other stones are like those here on the Solovki. I wanted to show it. I've tried to give each stone an individual expression," she explained to TASS. "I wanted to say with my work what an amazing place the Solovki is. Full of beauty. I'm happy if I've managed to express it in my work."

Vasily Vlasov from Moscow tried to convey the Solovki mystery in a landscape, although, he admitted, it was very difficult for to convey in words what he wanted to depict. Unexpectedly bright spots amid shades of gray and silver. "I wanted to show the coastal area. Even with some litter, a human accent it is," he told TASS. "I wanted to make the work positive, I am generally a positive artist. Thus, the landscape is so lyrical, maybe even musical to an extent."

The works are presented at the Solovki Archipelago Preservation and Development Foundation. The exhibition will run for a year, the organizers said.

The first symposium of contemporary art was held in Crimea in 2019. Artists have been working on the Solovki under this project since 2022. The symposium's partners are the Solovki Archipelago Preservation and Development Foundation and the Solovki State Historical and Architectural Museum and Reserve.