Valery Pchelin

I am a sculptor, designer, architect and carpenter with a history of studying in technical and art schools, as well as in the Stieglitz Art and industrial Academy. I work mainly with wood and see unlimited possibilities of this material for creating modern art forms. Over the years, I have created original wood sculptures, installations, design items, land art objects, and designed small architectural forms. My main artistic technique is construction, joining parts in a carpenter's manner. Artistic processing and creating various art objects from wood is my profession and the meaning of my work as an artist. I studied the methods of wood processing in different countries – I worked and lived in Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Argentina – and everywhere I applied local and author's methods of working with wood. In practice I learned the secrets of this highest art. In South America alone, I used two dozen types of wood. Every piece of wood is my co-author.

Valery Pchelin

Valery Pchelin was born in 1962 in the village of Dzhusaly (today Zhosaly) Kyzylorda region of the Kazakh SSR. He grew up in the villages of Novotitarovskaya and Vasyurinskaya in the Dinsky district of Krasnodar Area.

At the age of 17, he moved to Krasnodar. Since 1990 – member of the youth Association of the Union of artists of the RSFSR; since 1995 – member of the Union of artists of Russia and the International Association of fine arts (AIAP UNESCO). In 1992-1993, he worked as an artist-restorer of the Krasnodar state historical and archaeological Museum-reserve named after E. D. Felitsyn. In 1996, Pchelin was the chief designer of the company for the production of construction elements from agglomerated marble and granite «Moroz» in Krasnodar.

From 1997 to 1999, he lived in Argentina. As a guest artist, he created monumental, decorative and sculptural projects for the municipality of Pinamar and the bishopric of the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina. During the same period in Pinamar, he developed original furniture and wooden dishes at the invitation of the Veneto woodworking company. Since 1998, he has created monumental and park sculptures based on the results of competitions in international art residencies and on request. Since 2018 – co-organizer of the series of open lectures "How Contemporary art is organized" (PchelinHouse project together with Rostelecom).

Valery Pchelin’s artworks are in the collection of the State Russian Museum, the Krasnodar art Museum of fine arts named after F. A. Kovalenko, in private collections in Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Argentina, Sweden and Austria.

He lives and works in his own house-workshop PchelinHouse in the village of Afipsky Seversky district of Krasnodar territory.