WALERA MARTYNCHIK

Walera Martynchik was born in post-war Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union. His artistic development began in the 1960s and 70s, during a time when only state-sanctioned propaganda art was permitted. However, the political and cultural thaw known as Khrushchev’s Thaw briefly lifted the Iron Curtain, allowing a glimpse of the outside world. 

Through this narrow opening, images from Western art magazines, books and museums began to circulate, and for the first time, young Soviet artists discovered the existence of Modern Art. For Martynchik, this revelation was especially profound. He learned that his hometown of Vitebsk had once been a global centre of the avant-garde, a birthplace of artistic revolution. It was there that Marc Chagall was born, Kazimir Malevich taught his radical theories, and the Suprematists and Constructivists redefined visual language.

While these avant-garde traditions deeply inspired him, they also stood in direct opposition to the rigid and repressive Soviet art education system. Any attempt at experimentation could result in harsh consequences: expulsion, loss of scholarships, or forced retreat into artistic exile. For nearly two decades, Martynchik operated underground, creating in isolation, without exhibitions or contact with the wider cultural world. In this context, his first major series, Zones, became paradoxical sanctuaries: while the title evokes the prison camps of the Soviet Gulag system, these canvases were his only true spaces of freedom. 

In the 1970s, Martynchik visited the Moscow studios of underground artists such as Vladimir Yankilevsky, Oscar Rabin, and Anatoly Zverev figures who would later define Soviet nonconformist art. These encounters had a lasting impact on his vision. Following Perestroika, he founded and curated “Forma,” the first underground art collective in Belarus. The group was his way of showing that independent cultural expression existed not only in Moscow but also in lesser-known cities, buried deep underground. 

Since 1990, Walera Martynchik has lived and exhibited internationally, including in the United Kingdom. His work continues to draw on the legacy of the Russian avant-garde, the emerging aesthetics of computing, and the philosophical undercurrents of complexity.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019 Singapore Arteries Art fair
2018 OXO Tower, Barge House Exhibition, London
2018 Bethnal Green Gallery, London
2016 STAGE, Singapore Art fair
2015 Biennale of Light and Sound, Moscow, Russia
2014 Solo show, Museum of Decorative Art, Moscow
2014 Solo show, Crouch End Open Studios
2013 Solo Show, Albemarle Gallery, London.
2012 Solo show "Art of Memory" Martynchik drawings, House of Vostrovska Gallery, Vyner Street,London     

2011 Solo exhibition at the Pink Floyd Show, O2, London 
2010 Solo exhibition. at the MTV Award, Madrid 
2010 Unique Art Gallery, Chelsea, London 
2008 "Walera Martynchik" Ivana Morozoff Galerie, Brussels, Belgium 
2008 "Walera Martynchik" New End Gallery, Hampstead, London 
2007 "Consolation Zone" Martynchik Art Foundation, Pushkin House, Bloomsbury Sq., London EC1 
2006 “Walera Martynchik” ArtLondon.com Gallery, London 
2005 “Walera Martynchik” ArtLondon.com Gallery London 
1997 “Walera Martynchik” Galery Basmajan, Paris, France 
1994 “Walera Martynchik” Vlissingen City Gallery, Holland 
1994 “Walera Martynchik” Gallery Basmajan, Paris, France 
1992 “Walera Martynchik” Gallery Basmajan, Paris, France 
1990 “Walera Martynchik” Red Square Gallery, London 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015 Red Square Gallery, Singapore
2014 Lounerdale House Gallery, Highgate Hill, London
2014 Koller Abstract Art Gallery, Academy of Art, Moscow
2013 Academy of Art, Moscow
2012 House of Vostrovska Gallery, Vyner Street, London
2012 Matt Roberts gallery, Vyner Street, London
2012 Abstract Art Group show, Vitebsk, Belarus
2010 La Galleria Pall Mall, Art Bizzar, London 
2010 New End Gallery, Hamstead, London 
2010 Artige Fine Art, La Galeria Pall Mall, London 
2010 Russian Art Fair, Mayfair, London 
2010 Artige Fine Art, Colomb Gallery, Mayfair, 
2010 Ricshaw House Gallery, London 
2010 Unique Art Gallery, Chelsy, London 
2010 Russian Art Fair, Mayfair, London 
2010 Artige Art Exhibition, Maifair, London 
2010 Ricshow Art Gallery, London 
2009 Bedfordbury Gallery, Covent Garden, London 
2009 Ricksaw House Gallery, London 
2009 Albermarle Gallery, London 
2008 New End Gallery, Hampstead, London 
2007 "21 Century Watercolour" Royal Society of watercolour artists, Bankside Gallery, London 
2005 “21 Century Watercolour” Bankside Gallery, London 
2005 New English Art Club, Mall Gallery, London 
2004 Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Mall Gallery, London 
2002 Demarco Art Foundation, Brooks Univercity, Oxford 
2001 Dach exhibition, Gallery im Kunshaus, Tacheles, Berlin 
2000 Demarco Art Foundation, Stainly Picker Gallery, London 
1998 Kensington Art Fair, London 
1995 Art from Belarus, Edinburgh Festival 
1991 Olimpia Art Fair London

After liberalisation of political and cultural lives in the former USSR an organiser and a leader of “Forma”- a group of nonconformist artists in Belarus 

1989 “Forma” exhibition Union of Artists Gallery, Moskow 
1989 “Forma exhibition Troitsk City-gallery, Moskow 
1988 1st Festival of Soviet underground Art Narva, Estonia 
1988 “Forma” exhibition Na Kashirke Gallery, Moskow 
1987 “Forma” exhibition “Kadriorg” State Art Museum, Tallin, Estonia 
1987 “Forma” exhibition Kohtla-iarve, City-gallery, Estonia 

Awards- Prize winner "21 Century Watercolour" competition, Bankside Gallery, London 2005

 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS :

National Museum, Lviv, Ukraine
Museum of Modern Art, Minsk, Belarus
Norton Dodge Collection of Soviet Underground Art, New Jersey, USA

Private collections around the globe.