The work is exhibited in the Moni Lazariston
 
Alexei Kallima was born in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya and moved to Moscow in 1994, few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is where he started a series of paintings and wall paintings using the war of the Russian army against the Chechen autonomists as his main subject matter. The artist has announced that “I paint what I like. I am inspired by whatever is connected with Chechnya. I am inspired by the heroic men.”
His scenes frequently derive from battles with young Chechens fighting, while in some other cases the simple daily routine with scenes of rest and relaxation are also portrayed. The cruelty as also the humoristic intention that apparently coexist, is as well evident in his work. Another image that is well portrayed in his work is the depiction of men being in groups or individually, in order to present their personality. In addition, another characteristic of Kallima’s work is his persistence on the Chechen men’s track suits of a well known brand name, with the intention of not only showing an element of reality but also representing the usage of clothes and their insignia (i.e. the white stripes) for morphological and chromatic reasons.

Theodore Markoglou