Two Siberian Artists at the End of the Soviet Era

TMORA presents forty paintings created by two Novosibirsk artists at the end of the Soviet epoch. Not a lot of art reaches the Western Hemisphere from Siberia. This remarkable collection was brought to the US by American artist Kevin H. Adams who was invited by the Soviet government to tour Russia in 1989 with an exhibition of landscape paintings. Adams visited Novosibirsk where he met and befriended several local artists. Later, two Siberian artists, Alexander Beliaev and Mikhail Ombish-Kuznetsov, were permitted to travel to the US with a touring exhibition of their work, hosted by Kevin Adams.

Since the time of their travel to the US, Beliaev and Ombish-Kuznetsov have become renowned Siberian artists. Ombish- Kuznetsov is known for his intriguing mix of photorealist and constructivist streaks, as well as his witty Trompe-l’œil (“deceive-the-eye”). He studied architecture in the Novosibirsk Construction Institute, became a member of the Soviet Artists’ Union in 1973, and later headed the Department of Monumental Art at the Novosibirsk Academy of Art and Architecture. Beliaev studied art at the Omsk Pedagogical Institute, was admitted to the Soviet Artists’ Union in 1983 and was later Professor of Studio Arts at the Novosibirsk Academy of Art and Architecture. Both artists have received multiple national and regional awards, and their works are preserved in museums and private collections in Siberia and wider Russia.

The paintings featured in this exhibition were part of the Kevin H. Adams Collection of Siberian art, inherited by Jay Brown in 2023 and generously donated to TMORA, with additional works contributed by John Andrew Beard.