The Byrne Gallery Presents “Winter in My Village” by Yuri Gorbachev

MIDDLEBURG, VA — The Byrne Gallery in Middleburg, Virginia, is proud to present “Winter in My Village,” a selection of iconic snow paintings by internationally known artist Yuri Gorbachev. The exhibition will showcase the wondrous beauty of his hometown of Uglovka, where Gorbachev grew up enjoying winter festivals and the warmth of his mother’s Ukrainian family. The paintings capture the joyful playfulness of children and pets, building snowmen, and enjoying the cold winter season as horses frolic in the snow. The exhibition is a continuation of his December show and will be on display January 3-31.

This year a portion of the sales from the exhibition will be donated to the families of Ukraine through the International Rescue Committee. This organization is consistently awarded top marks by charity watchdog groups for efficient use of contributions and overall impact.

With over 50 years of exhibitions worldwide, Gorbachev has had more than 200 solo exhibitions. He estimates that over 2 billion people have seen his artwork. Gorbachev’s work hangs in the permanent collections of the Louvre, the Hermitage, and several other Russian state museums. He has been featured in publications like Elle, GQ, Forbes, and the New York Times — several of which carried his famous 2011 advertisement for Stolichnaya vodka.

More About Yuri Gorbachev

Many local collectors may know that at the age of 27 Yuri Gorbachev became a member of the prestigious Artists’ Union of the former USSR. Since then, he has established himself as one of Russia’s most distinguished modern painters before moving to New York in 1991. Gorbachev has been a proud and devoted U.S. resident since 1991.

Inspired by the brilliant, jeweled colors of Byzantine art, the works of Faberge, and Russia’s icon heritage, Gorbachev creates colorful, richly-textured canvases in oil and gold leaf. His personally joyful and meditative artistic world combines memories of his Russian boyhood and the deep tradition of Russian Orthodox icon painting. His art blends a radiant kaleidoscope of folk celebrations, street fairs, circuses, fairy tales, animals, snowy winter landscapes, and images of the Romanov dynasty.

Since 2011, Gorbachev’s whimsical paintings have illustrated both Absolut and Stolichnaya vodka advertisements appearing in hundreds of magazines around the world. In 2010, the St. Petersburg Museum of Urban Art & Sculpture hosted a major exhibition of his work. Tens of thousands of Russians, especially young people, attended the exhibit and broke all attendance records for the museum. In 2011, the State Russian Museum, the most important museum of Russian art worldwide, accepted Gorbachev’s major oil painting, “Tsar Nicholas and his Family,” into their permanent collection. Gorbachev’s museum tour continued through 2015, visiting the National Gallery of Fine Art in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; the Kumu Art Museum of Estonia; and the Literature Museum of Odessa, Ukraine. Future exhibitions are scheduled for major museums in Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other European cities, including Helsinki and Monaco.

In 2015, the National Gallery of Armenia obtained a painting from Gorbachev for their permanent collection. The gallery houses one of the most prestigious Russian art collections in the world and includes such artists as Chagall, Malevich, Kandinsky, and Filonov. The gallery selected a work entitled “Adam and Eve” for their permanent collection. The work was their first acquisition of Russian art in over 10 years.

In both 2011 and 2012, Gorbachev had the honor of being commissioned to design a new label for Stolichnaya red vodka. The Gorbachev-designed label is derived from his painting, “Four Elements.”

The Byrne Gallery is located at 7 West Washington Street in Middleburg, Virginia. The exhibit is open to the public and everyone is invited for viewing. Gallery hours are Monday and Tuesday by appointment only; Wednesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Contact the Byrne Gallery for information at (540) 687-6986.

Images courtesy of the Byrne Gallery.

Posted on: January 4, 2024