The first solo exhibition of the young St. Petersburg artist Ivan Plyush in the pop/off/art Gallery is far from being his first project in the capital. He is a participant and one of the organisers of the famous St. Petersburg group-studio “Nepokorennye” (“The Unconquered”), and is already known through his participation in the exhibitions of the 1st Youth Biennale “STOI! KTO IDET?” (“HALT! WHO GOES THERE?”), Baibakov Art projects, and also through being nominated, as a member of the group, for the “Innovation-2008” Prize. In his home city he is considered one of the leaders of the “under 30’s” generation, one who skillfully works in different media – from painting to objects and installations. For the show in the Gallery a series of paintings has been chosen, united under the title “Sculptures” – images of badly damaged park sculptures of the Soviet epoch are the prevailing motif in it. There is in them neither the nostalgic documentary element of the post-Soviet period, nor, moreover, the cheerful and cynical deconstruction of Sots-Art. Plyush is an artist of the new generation, for whom the Soviet epoch is a cause for forming relationships and image structures utterly different to those of the XXth century artists, for whom it was modernity. His painting about sculptures is delicate multilayered metaphors, referring back to the key examples of the last century’s Art and tinged with lyricism, and not devoid of the tragic element, and which address the contemporary man more than the old generation. Their style – quality painting plasticity and a bright colour range – distinguishes yet another “master from the northern capital”, an artist capable of posing serious questions and finding in them the space for profound creative expression.