Infamous Tea & Honey show
While many a broke, talentless laowai in Shanghai is posing as an international artist just to make a buck, one Russian painter refuses to sell his work to anyone. At 27, Sergey Balovin is an art prodigy and his work has been showcased in over thirty solo exhibitions throughout Europe and Asia. His paintings are so sought after that he is able to survive for a few years at a time after a single successful show and devote this time to art for art’s sake. Patrons flock to his Shanghai studio to have their portraits painted but Balovin won’t accept their money. Instead, he insists that “buyers” bring with them any physical object of their own choosing to exchange for their portrait. In this way, Balovin conceives, clients are drawn into the creative process by having to come up with an inventive object to offer.
Balovin complains that art acquisition has traditionally been exclusive and elitist, and asserts that art should be for everyone. He takes it one step further, questioning whether art should be valued on a monetary scale at all. “My art isn’t something I want to stick a number on. I’m happy that with an exchange everyone can have a piece of art without money. Poor people, rich people, everyone can have it.”
“Sometimes people propose to give money but it’s important to me to make an exchange. The value of the item isn’t important but if they put thought into what they bring it means my art is important to them. Some people tell me that they spent months trying to decide what object to bring but with others I know they just bought it at the last second from the shop downstairs.”
As a full-time artist, Balovin often paints from sunrise to sunset. To date Balovin has painted hundreds of portraits in exchange for items including a bicycle, hammock, scissors, pepper, a laptop, plants, toilet paper, a sound system, and fresh strawberries. “Every portrait has its own story,” tells Balovin, “I remember everybody and every object.”
This interactive art project began in 2009 when Balovin moved to Shanghai. He wanted to do up his unfurnished two-bedroom apartment and also meet his new compatriots, so he posted an online ad offering to paint portraits in exchange for household goods. Within a month he had a decked-out, fully-furnished pad complete with coffee maker, designer lamps and five-piece drum kit. After that, the habit stuck and Balovin has been accepting in-kind contributions instead of cash payments for his art ever since.
Balovin was enrolled in art school at the age of eight and went on to teach in the Faculty of Fine Art at the Pedagogical University in Voronezh for five years. “I think my mom decided I was talented when I was in kindergarten and she saw my first good drawing,” Balovin remarks, then adds with a chuckle, “My teacher helped me but my mom thought I did it on my own.”
Balovin hosts weekly events at his studio open to all, including parties, concerts and talks. Recently a number of European film directors, animators and musicians have presented there, and the gigs are frequented by a bunch of creatives mingling over food and drink.
To visit the studio and participate in an art-for-random-object exchange, contact Sergey Balovin at www.balovin.ru, sergey.balovin@gmail.com, 139 1746 4443.
