Fairytale heroes on display in the Fireplace Hall

Igor Polyakov is a young artist from St. Petersburg who works in the style of Russian art nouveau. To celebrate the Year of Literature, an exhibition of his work will open at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, in the Fireplace Hall of the Dress Circle, on 25 June. The heroes featured in Polyakov’s paintings are characters from the fairy tales of Alexander Pushkin, Pyotr Yershov, Hans Christian Andersen, and E. T. A. Hoffmann.

Polyakov’s work has already been displayed at more than ten exhibitions, including solo shows. These include two international projects (“World Contemporary Art” at Helsinki’s SMK Gallery, and “After” at the NiArt gallery in Prague), as well as a special project for the Fourth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Recently, St. Petersburg played host to his “Russian Seasons: The Ballets of Igor Stravinsky” exhibition. Critics noted that, in Polyakov’s work, “in the deliberate style of old fairy tales, in the designs and colour, you can see the long lost heart of our origins, our deepest roots, that something without which not a single culture could exist”.

The exhibition will open on 25 June at 18:50 in the Fireplace Hall of the Dress Circle. It will run until the end of the season.