Description
This unique and original piece of art was sculpted by Michel Kiriliuk. Born French and self-educated this sculptor, interior designer and painter describes himself as a futuristic and constructivist ultra-baroque designer.
Kiriliuk uses brass, iron and glass highlighted with brass brazes and silver brazes in order to bring a true plastic effect. The glass slab is cast on a sand bed – for a thickness from 22mm up to 70mm – before being engraved, smashed and polished. The artist also works with shagreen, scales, rock crystals.
Michel Kiriliuk comes from a rare breed of artists, a true alchemist whose only master is experiment and innovation. He is a self-taught artist obeying his hands and the epiphanies of his spirit. He is guided by his love for the material as evidenced by his unique pieces. As the ones who tried to accomplish the Great Work, Kiriliuk too transforms, transmutes matter. He denies gravity and the laws of phyisic. The glass slab’s fragments he joins in his pieces are light as air and his brass is as smooth and supple as the silk.
When sculpture is usually playing with light and shadow effects Kiriliuk’s produces radiances, sparkles where darkness should dwells. Metals and glass are joined to catch light. The materials are glorified by rugged surfaces and this absence of flatness brings to his work a natural dimension, like geological landforms.
Kiriliuk’s work is utterly mineral. The pieces are anchored to the ground but simultaneously seem to fly away. Through the control of the composition and the balance of figures Michel Kiriliuk delivers dynamic, animated sprays. His tripod light fixtures evoke stalagmites from another era, his « Soleil Couchant » appears surprinsingly peaceful despite the violence of its details and « Kiriliuk vs Kasparov » with its moving elements seems to be alive.
Michel Kiriliuk’s repertoire is timeless. Mirrors, sideboards, light fixtures and chess boards have featured in interiors for centuries. This way he renews these permanencies, giving new propositions resolutely innovative. This furnishing comes from another place. As unchanging as futuristic, out of time and out of styles. This furnitures and decor accompanying men for so long finally reach a new place and reveal new aspects testifying of Kiriliuk’s maestria.
A straightforward sculpture
Each of Kiriliuk’s work are unique and original. The artist employs direct techniques. He is the sole actor of the making despite the variety of techniques : arc welding, silver braze, brass braze, acid patina, engraving and polishing of thick glass slabs.
Michel Kiriliuk was born in Casablanca in 1952 from a Russian father and an Italian mother. He leaves school aged 16 to learn manual work in a workshop. he learns the craft of cabinetmakers and soon restores antic pieces. The first piece of furniture he designs is an aluminium bar bought by Amercian collectors. Since then, Michel Kiriliuk has been a designer, a sculptor and an interior designer.
Kiriliuk’s work develops its difference from artistic movements, it is truly original and multifaceted. Each piece of furniture, each object, each sculpture is a unique piece.
The artist produces furnitures, tripod lamp posts, wall lights as well as sculptures strictly speaking.
Kiriliuk works from home, outdoors no matter the season. On a workbench the cold forming metal is shaped with the hammer and the anvil. To produce twists the artist uses a blowtorch and a hammer – as a flint – to smash pieces of glasses. Each element is designed in his mind and cut out but never drawn on paper. The base is made of metal and brass to be enriched following his inspirations. The first part, when making the base, is particularly fast contrasting with the ornamental part, slower and giving free rein to his imagination.
This is when the goldsmith dimension starts, when he looks for diverse combination of materials and patinas to reach his perfection. Today the artist assures us he has no more troubles with the technique, however, he still seeks to be certain of the final appearance because « it’s a gift for the others ».
« Technique allows us to transform intentions into reality. But only the power coming out of the piece gives it an emotional value ».
M. Kiriliuk
Michel Kiriliuk participated to numerous fairs :
1990. SAD in Le Grand Palais, Paris
1995. Beach Plaza Monaco
1996. City Hall of the 20e arrondissement, Paris
1997. SAD Porte de Versailles, Paris
1997. City Hall of Fontainebleau, Les 10 Jours de l’Art Contemporain
1998. Salon d’Automne, Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris
1999. Ateliers Z for the Who’s Who, Switzerland
2000. Salon d’Automne, Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris
2001. Salon d’Automne, Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris
2002. Salon d’Automne, Espace Eiffel Branly, Paris
2002. SAD Carousel du Louvre, Paris
2003. Salon d’Automne, Centenaire du Salon, Espace Auteuil, Paris
2004. Art en Mouvement, Courcouronnes
2004. L’Homme au Cœur de l’Art Contemporain, Niort
2004. Salon d’Automne, Espace Charenton, Paris
2005. Salon Espace Eiffel Branly
2006. Salon d’Automne, Palais des Congrès, Montreuil
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