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)