Major Summer Show by Daud Akhriev Opens at Archipelago Fine Arts

The remarkable summer show at Archipelago Fine Arts, the Island Institute’s art gallery at 386 Main Street in Rockland, is Catching the Light: The Frenchboro Paintings by Daud Akhriev, a major Russian-born artist who has garnered international renown.  The public is invited to an opening reception from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, June 26^th that will begin with a brief artist’s talk at 5:00 p.m.     

Akhriev has spent almost two decades of painting on Frenchboro, and has been spending summers there with his family since 1993.  “There’s something very mystic, shimmering, about a place like Frenchboro,” he says.  His large oil portraits and landscapes reveal his 14 years of study in classical painting and drawing as well as his commitment to capturing the spirit of the place through his choice of colors and composition.

 

Among many accolades, Akhriev won an award of excellence from Oil Painters of America in 2007, and Second Place in the Greenhouse Gallery’s Salon International, in San Antonio, TX.  Greenhouse has twice included Akhriev’s work in International Masters, an invitational exhibition.  He has participated in group shows in New York, London, Zurich, Oslo and around the Southeastern United States.  Artists Magazine featured Akhriev in its February, 2006 issue, and his work is in two books: Daud Akhriev, Stylistic Pluralism, and Traditions Rediscovered: the Finley Collection of Russian Art.

 

This is Akhriev’s first comprehensive Maine show, and a gallery of images is available on the Island Institute’s website, www.islandinstitute.org.  A folio of his work can also be found in the 2009 expanded 25^th-anniversary edition of Island Journal, the Institute’s annual magazine of island life, available online at Archipelago (www.thearchipelago.net) or at its retail store adjacent to the gallery. Current gallery hours for Archipelago Fine Arts are 9:30-5:30, Monday through Friday, 9:30-5:00 on Saturdays, and 11:00-4:00 on Sundays.  The Daud Akhriev exhibit will run until September 20^th.