On May 28, 2025, an exhibition of artist Svetlana Maksimovna Kolesnik opened in the Moscow Regional Branch of the Union of Artists of Russia on Krutitsky Val. She has been constantly collaborating with our institute for over 20 years, but she does not part with her first profession — she constantly creates new works and holds prestigious solo exhibitions.
Svetlana Kolesnik was born on May 19, 1959 in Podolsk, Moscow Region, in the family of artist Maxim Efimkin, one of the founders of the Podolsk Association of Artists, a branch of the Union of Artists of Russia. In 1975, she graduated from the Podolsk Art School. In 1981 she graduated from the art and graphic faculty of the Lenin Moscow State Pedagogical Institute (the former Potemkin Institute, which her father graduated from before the Great Patriotic War).
In 1983, she joined the youth association of the Moscow Regional Union. Since 1985, she worked as a painter in the Podolsk interdistrict art and production workshops of the Union of Artists. Since 1995 she is member of the Union of Artists of Russia.
Svetlana works in the genres of portrait, landscape and still life. In addition, she paints icons. She settled in the village of Dubna (Chekhov urban district) 17 years ago.
The artist’s works are stored in private collections in Russia, Austria, the USA and Canada, the Podolsk Art Gallery, the Historical and Memorial Museum-Reserve “Podolye” (Podolsk), churches of the Chekhov district of the Moscow region and the Kaluga region, the art museum of the city of Mogilev.
Svetlana Maksimovna is the widow of the airborne officer Yuri Gorbonos, who fought in many hot spots, including Afghanistan.
According to the author of the exhibition, an artist must first of all understand that he is a part of Godэs world, endowed with special abilities to comprehend this world, to know its beauty and harmony. She is against shocking formalism or some kind of fictitious salon with excessive naturalism.
This exhibition reflects how the artist now understands for herself what is happening to us and our Motherland. In this regard, the name of the exhibition is “At the Holy Spring”. Here is what she said at the opening of the exhibition:
“We all drink water from the holy spring of the Russian land and the Orthodox faith. We are lucky that we have it, this spring of beauty of our native nature, flowers and herbs, close and distant good people. But our times are difficult, associated with the war, the death of loved ones in it. However, those who are now fighting in the Special Military Operation zone should also understand that they are protecting, first of all, this sacred source of beauty and peaceful life for you and me.”
There have always been so-called “hot spots” in Russia and in different parts of the world. And if we had not defended our interests, we would have lost our lands, our holy spring. That is why the exhibition includes portraits of the artist’s husband, Major Gorbonos, Father Cyprian, Pashka the mortarman (Sergeant Kirill Kalinichev, who died in the SMO), Alexander Marshal, who sings and composes songs about the war, and organizes concerts in the SMO.
The opening of the exhibition was attended by IIS founders and veterans: Yuri Hohlov, Tatiana Ershova and Viktor Stroganov. They congratulated Svetlana Maksimovna on another large exhibition and wished her further creative success.
