National Arts Club Presents Rate Tsereteli Exhibition, Opens 6/4

The renowned Russian painter and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli - President of the Russian Academy of Arts and Founder/Director of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art - will have a rare exhibit of his works, with an opening set for Friday, June 4 at 5:30 p.m. at the National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South) in Manhattan.

The exhibition - entitled "Two Cultures Through Art" - is presented by the New York-based Russian American Foundation and National Arts Club, which will honor Mr. Tsereteli its Gold Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement in Art, the first time NAC has designated this honor to a Russian Artist.

Mr. Tsereteli's mediums are many: painting, drawing, sculpture, monument design, enamel, mosaic and staiNed Glass. His bronze sculpture "Good Defeats Evil" is located at the United Nations Headquarters in NY; this sculpture - which depicts a mounted St. George driving his lance into the belly of a dragon - is comprised of dismantled intermediate range nuclear weapons from both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Tsereteli's 100-foot bronze sculpture "To the Struggle Against World Terrorism" is located at the entrance to the New York Harbor in Bayonne, NJ, in front of the Statue of Liberty. This sculpture was dedicated on September 11, 2006.

Mr. Tsereteli was born in Tbilisi, Georgia on January 4, 1934. He is a UNESCO Good Will Ambassador.

Aldon James is President of the National Arts Club. MaRina Kovalyov is President of Russian American Foundation; Rina Kirshner is Vice President.

Founded in 1997, Russian American Foundation encourages interest and understanding of Russian Heritage among all communities in the U.S. as well as to promote reciprocal interest in American heritage among global communities of the former Soviet Union.

For more information about Russian American Foundation, visit www.russianamericanfoundation.org or call 212 687 6118 x 200