LONDON.- Erarta Galleries London presents Les Paradis Naturels, a new collection of paintings by Aleksey Chizhov. One of Russia’s finest emerging artists, Chizhov’s paintings present a hallucinatory world encouraging growth and emotional development. In “Paradis artificiels” (Artificial Paradises) Charles Baudelaire writes about opium as the wrong way through which humankind can achieve enlightenment; a taste for the infinite satisfied by the creation of a pharmaceutical heaven. Chizhov, however, uses the symbol of poppies as a metaphorical escamotage to encapsulate the struggle evident in our society – whether to run away and hide from one’s problems, or to face them. “Les paradis naturels” (Natural Paradises) was chosen as the title for Aleksey Chizhov’s exhibition, as his work is a true manifesto inviting us to pursue an emotional and cognitive journey of self-growth. Alek