Gruppa AM（ Alexey / Maria）

Alexey：1987，Sterlitamak, Bashkirian ACCR, Russia
Maria：1987，Murmansk, Russia

Alexey Loptev and Maria Lopteva (together as Gruppa AM) are artists based in Moscow, Russia. They met during their education at the faculty of Monumental Sculpture at Stroganov State University of Applied Arts. First, they formed as family, and shortly after, in 2018, they started working together as an art group under the name of Gruppa AM. Their favourite material is bronze. The classical roots of their art education with post soviet masters keeps work with clay and bronze something almost sacred, however they take the form of their art as far away from the classical as they can, choosing the sincerity of children’s doodles, the lines of prehistoric art as their inspiration. The reliefs come out jagged, full of fingerprints, uneven edges, but with a certain tension of the modern, perplexed person intertwined within. The group mixes work with sculpture and painting. In painting choosing to form a kind of low relief of the canvas by adding layers of organza. Their primary palette being in greyish colors, also intertwining with their affection for clay as something that creation started with. The concepts of their work touch the translations that we have lost touch with in a world where the faster you are, the bigger you are, where the goal to succeed wipes away a forgotten purpose. They try to search for the values lost behind the shield of the gleaming material world, and to catch from the metaphysical layer the phrases floating and unseen, to take a try at unravelling their riddle in the process of transforming them into art.

Education (Maria Lopteva):
2002-2008 Moscow State University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts
2013-2015 Stroganov State University of Applied Arts, Faculty of Monumental Sculpture
2019-2020 Moscow Pedagogical State University, Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology, Art Therapy

Education (Alexey Loptev):
2004-2008 College of Applied Arts, faculty of Decorative Arts, Ufa, Russia
2010-2016 Stroganov State University of Applied Arts, Faculty of Monumental Sculpture