Eugene Vishnevsky (GenVish)

In 1997 I began the body of work called “Visual Coding of the Archetypes on the Basis of the Bible and the Biblical Mythology”.

I use symbolic primitivism to present biblical images in a unique and unprecedented manner, similar to the ancient Chinese tradition of telling stories in the form of pictures rather than words.

My exposure to Carl Jung's theory of archetypes, brought forth a series of drawings that reconsidered the raw imagery of icon painting in the context of unconscious reflexive narrative, the kind Jung proposed, that lies at the very back of our brains and motivates us invisibly. I am drawn to cultural archetypes, symbols and motifs that recur in all forms of mythic and fabulistic discourse and in some way bind all of the arts - literature, theater, fine art, dance and music. I have sought to make overt the presence of these archetypes in my own art, not propagandizing for or illustrating Jung’s theories but simply manifesting them in the process of telling tales and setting scenes.

Eugene Vishnevsky (GenVish) was born in 1960 in the city of Kiev, Ukraine. In 1990 he immigrated to Israel, and then to Canada. Eugene has lived in Los Angeles, California since 1993. According to the artist, his style, black and white symbolic primitivism, appeared in 1985. While growing as an artist, GenVish was greatly impressed and influenced by art of Heieronymous Bosch, Pavel Phylonov, Marc Chagall.