Inner Sally
Lesha Kononov
Exhibition
May 3 - 23
FInissage 2025 MAy 23 from 6pm
Swimming Pool Studio
Demminer Str. 32 / Brunnenstr.
13355 Berlin Wedding
U8 Voltastraße
Although Lesha is a mathematician by profession, painting gradually emerged among his many interests as his central passion. Entirely self-taught, he works with a freedom that stems from the absence of formal academic training-embracing the creative potential unlocked by this lack of imposed technique, yet aware of the limitations and insecurities this can bring.
A recurring concern in his practice is the possible disconnect between the inner vision and the visible result, between what he imagines and what he is able to render on canvas.
Cinematic Visions
Lesha’s paintings originate in memory-fragments of lived experience, literary impressions or cinematic visions. For him, painting is the act of transforming events into visual emotion, of provoking questions and sensations rather than seeking shared interpretation. The feelings he conveys are deeply personal and often remain deliberately open-ended.
He draws from concrete sources: old personal photographs, scenes from films etched in memory, careful studies of the shifting light at dusk, inner emotional states, distorted fragments of reality (such as the Lisbon Bridge), and pieces of poetry (Bukowski among his inspirations) that rise to the surface and imprint themselves onto his canvas.
Urban memories, from Amsterdam to New York, merge with childhood recollections—assembled like pieces of a puzzle until the painting feels whole.
A striking example of Lesha’s transfiguration of source material is the reinterpretation of the final scene from Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist.
The film’s group assassination is recast in the painting as a gathering of chudaky (a Ukrainian term denoting eccentric, peculiar figures), who simultaneously embody a fractured, multiplied self.
Beneath a star-strewn sky, these figures gesture animatedly, encased within a wall lit by a single electric bulb. Although the setting is altered, the original inspiration remains discernible.
Dream Float
Dream imagery is ever-present, as in his work on levitation, where a dreamlike sensation of controlling a scene unfolds – just as in the act of painting.
One feels in control, yet also threatened, immobilised yet soaring, able to choose the direction and speed of flight. Or perhaps, embarrassed to be naked, yet still capable of ascending-suspended in air.
In one such canvas, the figure is lying down, wearing a jacket, yet floating mid-air, set against a birch grove-trees frequently found in cemeteries and rich with symbolic resonance.
The text is a precious contribution by the author Gian Piero Piretto, who kindly endorsed this idea and, based on some friendly conversations with the artist, gave us a dense and thorough script about Lesha and his work.
This exhibition is curated by Wodkasoda Studio (Giancarlo Genovese & Laura Leo) and Karin Kruse with the support of Kiosque Berlin Agentur.