"There is a very special truth in this form," he says. "It would over-the-top if I stuck to the icon painters' school, but I happened to employ their shapes."
Belarus-born Semyonov, an Underground art activist in Soviet times, said, "we are hiding our bodies, we do not read and understand their lives." Each of his paintings culminates in a gesture of a hand or in the movement of a body.
Semyonov's paintings grace private collections as far away as America and New Zealand. He has staged 35 exhibitions since his first in 1976, including two in Norway and Finland.
Semyonov, who arrived in St Petersburg in 1974, was brought up on the stage, studying choreography, which perhaps explains his comment that whatever he is drawing feels like it is being drawn through his own body. Most of his male figures are self-images.
He feels colors personally and sharply. He uses few, sticking mostly to bronze, silver, black and white. "They are colors of the cathedral for me," he said. Occasionally blue, or red, or a mixture appear. "Blue expresses maximal spirituality, red maximum passion," he explained.
Sometimes even Semyonov himself does not find it easy to interpret his paintings. Of his "The Time," where a woman adorns a clock without hands, counting off the minutes with her body, he has no explanation.
"Why? I can't tell. Often my understanding comes after the painting is finished. The personal feelings of the viewer will explain." (SPP)
What: "Shadows in Silver" exhibition in the New Symbolists gallery
Where: Apartment 77, 10 Pushkinskaya Ulitsa, third entrance to the left in the courtyard
When: Opens January 6 with a saloon at 5pm, then Sundays 1 pm -- to 5 pm until January 28
Cost: Free
Nearest Metro: Mayakovskaya