Biography
The role of visual art is to express that which no other medium can convey. The exquisiteness of a painting is its inexplicable something - its striving for sacrum. For centuries it did this by exploring explicitly religious themes - biblical scenes, myths and fables. I believe this heritage is vital for the continued relevance of art, which is why I draw inspiration from, for example, the medieval period, the Fayum portraits, and difficult questions about the roots of the Slavic peoples - themes related to the art of bygone ages and the spirits of those times. The techniques used by those artists also fascinate me, and I try to employ and re-interpret their methods in my own work.
Walter Benjamin wrote about the aura of the work of art, and lamented its loss in the age of mechanical reproduction. I draw my subjects from history, mythology and the imagination because that is where I believe ''aura'' has its roots. I strive for that unspoken quantity through which a painting can enchant and even haunt its viewer, like in Gogol's famous story "The Portrait". Sadly I find that quality is missing in most of what passes as "conceptual" art today. I am convinced that contemporary art needs to turn away from loud and effective gestures and contemplate more deeply the world we live in and our relation to this world. Artists need to return to the image its original essence.
