About mp /
Began drawing and painting in Moscow, when I was six. Then came Paris, paintings and artist’s books. Later, New York opened up for me, unfolded my space, freed the line, the gesture, its writing, its dance. I finally found my family, abstract expressionism. My painting continued to become more fluid, ample, and to liberate itself and approach its own source, making tradition and the know-how recede year after year. I have forgotten more and more. Today I have made my quantum leap into working with light. Cleared from the materiality, from the weight of oils and canvas, my night paintings capture the intangible, as well as the movement of the ‘danced’ body and make it visible. My light movie (no end drawings in motion) on 35mm film is coming as well. With Kirk Hellie, I am working on performances with night paintings/light movie, as well as with a choreographer, dancers, and a singer . A new element came into my work – space. I am deeply interested by working with unusual spaces, indoor or outdoor, to reveal their hidden structure, presence, voice, character. My passion is to continue to create total installations where the visual, sound and spatial appeals meet and interact, where one enters and immerse into the picture, movie, music, and to offer to the audience an unprecented experience of an expanded perception, a magic journey.
Solo and group exhibitions in New York (La Boétie, Inc.), San Francisco (Modernism, Inc.), Paris, London, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Biennale de Lyon, etc. Eleven artist’s books.
Collaborations with Chanel, Kenzo, Lacroix, Hermès.
Public collections (Paris, Amsterdam, Sans Francisco, New York, Netherlands, Germany), private collections (France, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, United States).
A more personal P.S. >
I cannot live without painting and drawing, with bamboo, pencil, brushes, light (maglite), whatever. It is my oxygen, my response to the world. When I paint I am alive. Regardless of the questions or problems in the outer world, when I paint, everything takes its rightful place. It is a state of grace for me. I should add that when I draw I write, and when I write I draw.
I cannot live without the feeling that the world comes into you, you breathe with the world - there is no separation between the world and you. That is exactly what I feel and experience when I paint and draw. I also love the feeling of being expanded throught the world - Russia, France, and the US are my axes. I need to feel myself expanded - as mist, as a myriad of water spots, in many places, in many countries at the same time.
MACHA POYNDER / SELECTED CHRONOLOGY
Born in Moscow, 1962. Lived in Paris from 1974 to 1977 and since 1982.
1969-1981 : Drawing and painting classes with M. Illarionova, D. Doubrovin, P. Belvès, I. Zakharova and K. Mordovin (Moscow -Paris-Moscow). 1982 : Atelier Leconte. 1983 : Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. 1982-1986 : Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts-Décoratifs.
PERFORMANCES / INSTALLATIONS
2013
4 hands | m2, with Isabelle de Voldère, Clamecy, Burgundy
2012
Night Paintings/Light Movie/Random Wind, with Kirk Hellie,
Nuit Blanche, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris
ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2019-2020
Le monde n’offre à voir qu’une infime partie de lui-même, Institut Bruno Lussato, Brussels
2017
Recent Works, Jean et Danièle Attali, Paris
2016
Le bel aujourd'hui, Villa Seurat, #19E, Paris
2015
To Paint is to Love Again, Galerie de Buci, Paris
2010
Lemon Geisha Conversation, T1+2 Gallery, London
2004
Shopping Bags, Modernism, San Francisco
2003
Shopping Bags, Franck et Fils, Paris
2000 Modernism, San Francisco
1994 Galerie François Mitaine, Paris
Works on Paper, Sixth Annual Fair, La Boétie, Inc. & MJS, New York
1993
Personal Effects, La Boétie, Inc., New York
1993 Galerie J. & J. Donguy, Paris
1991 Monique Contencin, Paris
1990 Yaoundé, Cameroon, West Africa
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2013 B.A.B.E. /The Best Artists' Books and Editors/, Galerie Immanence, Paris
2010 Galerie Drouart, Paris
Born In The USSR, Made In France, Espace des Blancs-Manteaux, Paris
2007 Art Chicago, Modernism, Chicago
2006 Art Chicago, Modernism, Chicago
2005 Galerie Valérie Gérablié, Paris
2004 San Francisco International Art Exposition, Modernism, San Francisco
2003-2004 Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Works on Paper, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
2003
Hidden Typography, St Bride Library, London
2002 San Francisco International Art Exposition, Modernism, San Francisco
Art Chicago, Modernism, Chicago
2001 Art Chicago, Modernism, Chicago
2000 San Francisco International Art Exposition, Modernism, San Francisco
1999 San Francisco International Art Exposition, Modernism, San Francisco
1998 Galerie W, Paris
1997 Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris
1995
Works on Paper, Seventh Annual Fair, La Boétie, Inc. & MJS, New York
1994 Chez l’un l’autre, Paris
1993
Works on Paper, Fifth Annual Fair, La Boétie, Inc. & MJS, New York
Biennale de Lyon,
And They All Do Change the World, Lyon
1988 Downey Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China
Cambridge Multicultural Art Center, Boston
1986 Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Frankfurt Bookfair, Frankfurt
1984 Salon des Indépendants, Paris
1974
My Moscow, Moscow
ARTISTS' BOOKS
Une nuit à Yaoundé, with Jean-Luc Adde. Photography, inks, typed text/collages. Paris-Los Angeles, JLM Gallery, Inc., 2014.
2006 ou les roses du bonheur. Gouaches, coloured pencils, rubber stamps. Paris, Mouvement Art Libre, 2006.
Aller-simple. Collages, pastels, handwritten and typed text. Paris-New York, Mouvement Art Libre & MJS, 1997.
Le Cœur à gaz by Tristan Tzara . Gouache stencils, rubber stamps. Paris, Mouvement Art Libre, 1995.
Poèmes nègres, after the « poèmes nègres » adapted by Tristan Tzara. Collages, gouaches, typography. Paris-New York, Mouvement Art Libre, Transédition & MJS, 1993.
#19E, with Marc Dachy. Pastels. New York, 1991.
Afrique. Gouache stencils, typography, collages. Paris, Mouvement Art Libre, 1990.
La Punaise, after Vladimir Mayakovsky. Woodcuts. Paris, 1985.
BOOKS
Contes de fées. 16 poèmes enfantins, by e.e.cummings. Gouaches. Sauve, Clémence Hiver Editeur, 2002.
La Gemella buona e la gemella cattiva, by Rosanna Campo. Gouaches. Milano, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, 2000.
Comment ça va?, by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Woodcuts. Paris, Clémence Hiver Editeur, 1988.
La Punaise, by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Woodcuts. Offset of original prints. Paris, ILM, 1985.
COLLABORATIONS
Chanel (2002), Agnès B. (2002), Kenzo (2003), Hermès (2004)
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Logan’s Collection), USA
Frankfurt Stadt Bibliothek, Germany
Gutenberg Museum, Mainz, Germany
Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands
Herzog Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany
Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
New York Public Library, USA
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
PRESS
Art Press, Galeries Magazine, Libération, Le Figaro, Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, L’Infini, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Actuel, L’Autre Journal, Le Jour, Digraphe, « Femmes & Art au XXe siècle : Le temps des défis », Epok, Le Matin, L’Echoppe, 7 à Paris, Jornal da Tarde, (São Paulo), Le Bulletin du Bibliophile, La Part du livre, Lire Magazine, France Graphique, Livres-Hebdo, L’Oggetto Libro (Milano), Joyce Japan, Joong-Ang Daily News (Taïwan), Artima Taiwan Art Magazine, Pulse-UK, Boston Globe (London), Jornal da Tarde (São Paulo), La Repubblica (Roma), Corriere Adriatico (Italy), Il Giornale di Vicenza (Italy), Liberta (Italy), L’Arena (Italy), Corriere Adriatico (Italy), Gazetta del Sud (Italy), La Sicilia (Italy), Mezzanine (Moscow), Desillusionist (Moscow), Textilnaya Industria (Moscow), Lilit (Riga), Gallery SPB (Saint-Petersbourg), La Pensée Russe, La Nouvelle Parole Russe (New York)
