Ostrov Egor

Egor Ostrov is a third-generation artist, a descendant of the old-school academicians and iconoclasts of the 1960s. He thoughtfully defends the artistic legacy of the New Academy of Fine Arts (established in St. Petersburg in the early 1990s by Timur Novikov) regarding the preservation of the ideals of beauty and European tradition in art.

By bringing back to life both the imagery and fundamental principles of neo-academicism and paying tribute to the greatest examples of classical art, with his works Egor Ostrov offers original visual interpretations of familiar compositions, while ‘reinventing’ them for the modern-day audience by using the latest achievements and cutting-edge technologies provided by contemporary science.

It is rather difficult to classify the works of Egor Ostrov. His creative method is unusual and unique. Not only does it require familiarity with world-known masterpieces of painting and sculpture, but also a deep insight into the structure and internal rhythm of each work. To achieve this, one should have the ability to delve into the very essence of the image, detect and emphasize precisely those qualities that make it a masterpiece, whether it is Michelangelo’s tangibility, El Greco’s spiritualism, Bernini’s baroque expression or Ingre’s grace.

At the heart of Egor Ostrov’s unique artistic technique is a linear raster brought by the artist to a fundamentally new level with the help of computer technology. The image is painted on canvas in the form of lines with various thicknesses and saturation. This results in a special optical effect revealing the physics of the eye and visual perception. This is the basic principle of engraving: the strips are structured as a strict sequence with varying levels of thickness, sharpness, and bend; they have their own beginning and end. However, if we talk about engraving as a classical mean of image reproduction, the Old Masters used to produce exquisite copies that still were bearing the impress if their style. In the works of Ostrov, images are being passed through a certain lens, they exist in the world of an optical illusion, and thus the original remains the original.

Such perfectionism allows combining the past and the future without any loss, expressing it in the present. The imagery of Egor Ostrov does not aim for a momentary aesthetic effect; it cannot be comprehended with a fleeting glance. According to Ostrov himself, the modern world is overloaded with images, and the artist’s task is to carefully consider the history of visual knowledge accumulated over the centuries, to understand their internal mechanism and infinite potential.

In this respect, each work of Egor Ostrov turns into a contemplative intellectual and visual dialogue, a kind of tribute to the works of the Old Masters. The images move and vibrate; the hypnotizing raster recreates them over and over, it changes their appearance and mood depending on distance and point of view.

The art of Egor Ostrov brings back the notion of the ideal into modern life that is full of technology, calculations, and worldwide networks. The artist’s work is the embodiment of mathematical beauty, combining absolute accuracy of lines, purity of forms and ideality of the image.
It is a new milestone in neo-academicism, its coexistence in the age of conceptual art’s predominance makes it a retrospective and refreshing phenomenon at the same time.

SELECTED GROUP AND SOLO SHOWS:

2022 - St. Petersburg Art Fair "1703", a-s-t-r-a gallery, Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg
2022 — Art Moscow program within the framework of the 48th Russian atikvar Salon, a-s-t-r-a gallery. Gostiny dvor, Moscow
2021 — The State Hermitage Museum "Raphael Line. 1520-2020"
2021 — Art Moscow program within the framework of the 46th Russian atikvar Salon, a-s-t-r-a gallery. Gostiny dvor, Moscow
2020 — solo show a-s-t-r-a gallery, Cube, Moscow
2018 — Canon, Orekhov gallery, Moscow
2016 — Pontormo Book (together with Arkady Ippolitov)
2015 — Absolute Beauty – Neoacademism in Saint Petersburg. Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2014 — Selected. Transatlantiqe Gallery. Moscow
2012— In the Flow. ArtMost Galley. Mayfair, London
2011 — Immodern Art (with Elena Ulantseva) Knop’s Castle, Moscow2011-2012 – New Academy. Ekaqterina Art Foundation. Moscow
2008 — String Theory. State Academy of Fine Art, Moscow
2007 — Sign and Image. Attelier No.2, Moscow
2007 — New Positive Process. State Center for Photography, Saint Petersburg
2007 — Image and Sign. D137 Gallery, Saint Petersburg
2004 — Depth of Field: Egor Ostrov and Arno Brecker. D137 Gallery, Saint Petersburg
2003 — The Snowqueen’s Way: Egor Ostrov and Belyaev Gintovt. New academy of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg
2003 — New Academists. Look Art Gallery, London
2001-2002 – Beauty and Eritism. Gallery Gasunie, Groningen
2000 — Successors of Sparta. Synebruchoff Art Museum, Helsinki
1998 — Seven Lines to the Inch. Aidan Gallery, Moscow
1998 — Saint Petersburg Neoacademist Photography. Museum Foreign Art, Riga
1998 — New Possitive Processes. State Russian Museum State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg
1997 — Kabinet. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
1996 — Metaphern des Entrucktseins. Aktuelle Kunst aus St. Petersburg. Badischer Kunstverein/Karlsruher Kunstlerhaus, Karlsruhe
1996 — Egor Ostrov: Paintings. Galerie Rotloff, Karlsruhe
1994-1995 — Self-Indetification: Positions in Saint Petersburg art from 1970 until today. Kiel, Berlin, Oslo, Sopot, Copenhagen, Saint Petersburg.
1994 — Renaissance and Resistance. State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg
1994 — Achilles. New Academy of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg