Svetlana Kurmaz

Her works are held in the Kovalenko Krasnodar Art Museum, Krasnodar Exhibition Hall, Ministry of Culture of Russia, the collection of the 'M'ARS' Museum of Contemporary Art, and in private collections in Russia, Germany, Italy, England, USA, Israel, Turkey, Japan, and Switzerland.

1991 ‘37 Paintings’. ‘M’ARS’ Gallery. Moscow; 1992 ‘48 Paintings’. Central House of Artists, Moscow; 1993 ‘Meeting’. Joint project with E.Cabassi (Italy). Central House of Artists, Moscow; 1993 Group exhibition in Cambridge, England. (Laureate of the ‘Libera l’idea’ competition. Municipal Gallery of Florence, Italy); 1994 Solo exhibition, ‘L’immagine’ Gallery, Florence; 1994 Exhibition with A.Socht, G.Ladira Center, Florence; 1995 Solo exhibition, ‘Haus der Begegung’ Gallery, Munich; 1995 ‘Russian Collection’. ‘M’ARS’ Gallery; 1996 ‘Gallery in Gallery’ exhibition, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

‘...The world is beautiful and wondrous, whole and harmonious, spiritual and purposeful. Everything a person needs to know exists around him. Nature is symbolic. The ‘proto’ laws are universal. They exist in spiritualized nature and in art, music, architecture, mathematics, languages. Perhaps they are the conscious voice of nature.
To see, to feel, to be aware of what is seen with all your being, to read the secret letters of nature addressed to eternity, and... to be able to express this on canvas—through form, image, rhythm, color, pictorial surface. Maybe that is where my concept lies? The peculiarity of my approach to creativity? In any case, when this succeeds—a painting appears. And here is the secret and magic of painting.
After all, the reason can be anything—any combination of circumstances, chance impressions and emotions, sounds, rhythms, light and color. And God alone knows what else! But suddenly (always unexpectedly) everything breaks off, in deepest silence, a sound arises? Or maybe—not a sound? Maybe this is the road to the painting, whose presence I already feel!
Then an inner search for a clear image begins. This is inextricably linked with rhythm, the relationship of parts and the whole, plasticity (information exists in everything). And of course—color! Color harmony, big relationships, the life of the paint in every bit of the surface...
...As a rule the painting is named after the object depicted. For example: ‘Landscape with Red Trees’. I don't know if such trees, hills, water, and sky exist anywhere on earth. After all, all this—through color harmony, rhythm, plasticity, the sensuous surface of the canvas—is just to say again about love. And then it no longer matters what's depicted—trees, mountains, a person, a bird, water, wine, fruit!
Painting is very much like Love. Which many have tried to explain from various points of view for a long time; but they haven't explained it yet. It remains a mystery. The only thing known is—from Love the Beautiful is born.’

‘...Our 1990s, hungry for sensuous and plastically tangible images, truly need such painting.’
From the article ‘Two Women Artists’, catalog for the ‘Meeting’ exhibition, 1993.

Article by I.Lukshina, ‘48 Paintings’ catalog, 1992; Article by V.Turchin, ‘Meeting’ catalog, 1993; Article by E.Grigoryeva ‘Gold in Blue’, ‘Nezavisimaya’ newspaper, 1993; Article ‘A.Proposito della mostra di Svetlana Kurmas’ by Fedora d’Errico, ‘DEA’ magazine, Dept. of Culture of Florence; Article ‘Artisti russi al centro internazionale G.La pira Svieta Kurmas e Alexander Soht’, May 1994; Article by A.Petrovicheva ‘A. Soht and S. Kurmaz exhibition at “M’ARS” Gallery’, ‘Moskovsky Khudozhnik’ newspaper, July 25, 1995; Article by Stefanie V.Langen ‘Rusland und USA’, September 9, 1995, Munich Culture Magazine ‘Applaus’; ‘Russian Collection’ exhibition catalog, 1995.