Olga Aksenova was born in 1991, she lives and works in Moscow.

EDUCATION:

• 2010-2015 — Fine Arts and Natural Resources, specialising in icon painting, Moscow Region State University, Moscow, Russia.
• 2015-2019 — private workshops, The Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021-2022 — Video art and contemporary painting, Process School of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
• 2022 — residency in Gallery 22, Moscow, Russia.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

• 2022 — a-s-t-r-a Open.Vol 1, a-s-t-r-a gallery, Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2022 — Archstoyanie, festival of contemporary art, Bird's Eyeview group project, Nikola-Lenivets art park, Kaluga, Russia.
• 2022 — Point, IGUMO gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2022 — GIVE ART A CHANCE, 3D Exibition, HAZEGALLERY, Berlin, Germany.
• 2022 — Discovering new names, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2021 — Restlessness, Gallery 22, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — All-Russian Eco-art Festival of Intellectual Art, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2021 — Open exhibition, New Sincerity gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — Date 6, Zverev Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — Notification, interactive exhibition, Israel.
• 2021 — Quarantine, Kabood Atelier Art Gallery, Tabliz, Iran. 

The artist's work synthesises the traditions of the iconographic school and contemporary trends in network art, united by an interest in mysticism. The main work implies the interconnection of an internally ordered time period with external factors, the importance of understanding and observing supersensitivity – a phenomenon emerging at the junction of contemporary art and its perception. Each new element from the environment deconstructs the existing mode of being, thereby creating an ordered chaos. Awareness becomes a barrier to knowing oneself and the soundscape. It provides an opportunity to go deeper into the nature of things and phenomena, to accept one's place in the natural and human symbiosis. Boundaries become more transparent, reinforcing the contrasting perception of reality. The moment of rejection is shaped by a new meaning and a signal to action.

The artist explores such concepts as «image», «countenance» outside of time and reality in her artistic journey. The process of integrating this experience into the DNA of contemporary art is synthesised through a long involvement in icon painting practices.

There is a search for answers to questions about «spirituality», «images» and «faces» that have persisted and survived in networked spaces. In 2022, the project «Urandi Tribe» emerges from this quest, based on its own mythology as an opportunity to look into the boundary spaces of existing planes of being. This project was first exhibited at the Abramova gallery, Saint-Petersburg.

The artist finds sources of inspiration in fairy tales of different cultures, legends and myths, in art history and folklore songs. Since October 2022 the artist has been a resident of Gallery 22, a self-organisation of contemporary artists, where participants form exhibitions based on the rhizome principle and realise their own personal projects.

«My practical part are based on the intersection of contemporary art and many years of iconographic experience. In this interweaving, I am trying to understand how centuries-old traditions inherent in our religious basis have taken root in public memory and life I reflect on the ways of symbiosis of these borderline practices in the field of contemporary art». Olga Aksenova

Using fluorescent colour pigments, she tries to reveal the mystical content of the modern world by appealing to an image, a face - a concentration of cultural memory.

The artist's works are stored in private collections in Russia, America and France.

Bendeliani Tornike was born in 1992 in Moscow.

Self-taught artist.

He started to paint in 2016. He also graduated from Moscow State University of Printing Arts in 2015.

Bendeliani lives and works in Moscow. 

Technique of work: watercolour on paper and acrylic (when the background is monochrome). Some works are attached to the canvas on a stretcher. 

In ancient times, objects drew attention to themselves in a very different way. The object itself was a symbol of larger phenomena or meanings - a mask through which their essence was visible. Now symbolic thinking has been relegated to the margins of consciousness, but it lives on in art. It continues to work, bringing frozen objectivity to life, making sense of a renewed world. Its current beauty is the freedom of such comprehension.

The artist gives experience to new images and models through painting. The boundaries in the paintings are malleable. The viewer can see or guess different meanings in contemporary silhouettes of people, in successfully or unsuccessfully chosen objects, faces, animals and broken lines. This is how - as bricolage - the language of narration is born, followed by the language of interaction. The stroke, the shape, the colour are not related to the subject. It is pure aesthetics, designed to evoke the inner language of the beholder through the universality of geometric forms or a shared sense of colour. If you look at the blueness of the sky, the feeling of blueness will not belong only to you; others will understand it without pointing to the sky with a hand.

Most of the works are not titled so as not to give rise to speculation: «What can be said at all can be said clearly, and what cannot be said must be kept quiet». You can enter the plane of the works and look at the world from a different angle with curiosity. Here the world is distorted and refracted and coloured glasses give birth to phantasmagoria. It's a way of grappling with the mundane realities, even if they are more vivid. But you have to fight them by defending space for other experiences.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS:

• 2022 — a-s-t-r-a Open.Vol 1, a-s-t-r-a gallery, Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2022 — IV Contemporary Art Market WIN-WIN, Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — ArtLitfond-2 Auction: Contemporary Art, late XX - early XXI century, 2022 Future, А3 Gallery, Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Auction ArtLitFund: Contemporary and Future Art of Russia, XXI-XXII centuries, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Untitled Foundation charity auction supported by Sotheby's, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Untitled Prize, All-Russian Decorative Art Museum, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Art Lihoradca 2, BORSCH Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2017 — Art Lihoradca, BORSCH Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

Alexander Krylov was born and raised in Moscow. 

His works are stored in private collections and galleries in Russia, the United States, Germany and Turkey.

EDUCATION:

• Graphic Design, Moscow University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia.
• Contemporary painting, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

• 2022 — Shh, Exhibition of silent works, experimental WIP gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — Big Tree, kvartira3 space, Moscow, Russia.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

• 2022 — a-s-t-r-a Open.Vol 1, a-s-t-r-a gallery, Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2022 — POWER, Nakoval'nya gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2022 — DREAMCAST, LazyMike gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — ADVENT, contemporary art festival, New Tretyakov, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — Tribe Fest, Flacon, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — OpenCall Exhibition, New Sincerity gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — LowKey, Russian underground immersive exhibition, DorDor Gallery х2, New York, USA.
• 2020 — Negative GDP growth, NeFormArt, AHU, Moscow, Russia.
• 2020 — Zen Art Festival, Eurasian Art Union, Moscow, Russia.
• 2020 — Worst summer, NeFormArt, AHU, Moscow, Russia.
• 2020 — Factories don't stand, NeFormArt, AHU, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2020 — 20 years of loneliness, NeFormArt, AHU, Moscow, Russia.
• 2020 — NEON HAUT PARTY, New Level Russia magazine presentation, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Art Transaction, magazine MOST, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Swamiart gallery opening, Swamiart, Moscow, Russia.

Jolie Alien was born in 2002 in Moscow.

An autodidact artist, she works with catchy images, simple plots, cropped compositions and expressive drawings.

Each of Jolie's works is introspective, connected with personal memories, which partly explains her visual language, which is intertwined with surreal images, simple geometric patterns, catchy inscriptions made with paint and spray.

Jolie's works resemble a wall that has been covered with graffiti for a long time: the figures float on top of each other, creating a collage effect. Jolie outlines youth, which she has direct access to and which is closed to the adult world.

The artist finishes her studies at the Moscow art INSTITUTE, combining a career in the fashion industry, participating in shows of such brands as Valentino, Off-White, Jil Sander, Paco Rabanne, Prada, Viviene Westwood, Simone Rocha, etc. Starred in international advertising campaigns Mango, Fendi, Adidas.

The rights to use the image of "Whirpool" were acquired by Mango for use in the release of a collection of t-shirts around the world. She was the subject of articles about her work in Document Journal, Vogue, InStyle, Elle and models.com.

Preparing for admission to Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Complementary colors, expressive drawing and collage compositions of her paintings may seem confusing to many, but this confusion, ambiguity is a special feature of Jolie's works that distinguishes them from many others. As an artist, she values and puts perception above reflection, intuitiveness and even a certain automaticity of her paintings are related to art Brut and some of the works of Jean Dubuffet.

Jolie's language is highly subjective and even introspective. Perhaps only classical techniques can now allow the artist the luxury of speaking out about himself and capturing the reality around him as an enduring impression.

Her works are in collections in Russia, China, Japan, Belgium and America.

Lives and works between Moscow, London, and Tokyo.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

• 2021 — Symbiosis, solo exhibition, Peak Moscow by a-s-t-r-a gallery, Moscow, Russia;
• 2020 — Cosmoscow Art Fair, a-s-t-r-a gallery, Moscow, Russia;
• 2020 — ENTER Art Fair, a-s-t-r-a gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark;
• 2020 — I Lost Track of the World", curated by Irina Shulzhenko, Richter space, Moscow, Russia;
• 2019 — One, Two, Three, curated by a-s-t-r-a, group exhibition, Cube.Moscow space, Moscow, Russia;
• 2019 — 20.11, curated by Irina Shulzhenko and Dmitry Yanchoglo, solo exhibition, Richter space, Moscow, Russia;
• 2019 — 1367 Number of My Tick - What to Do?, curated by a-s-t-r-a, solo exhibition, Cube.Moscow space, Moscow, Russia;
• 2019 — Color, live performance (creating a five-meter wall painting) at the opening of a-s-t-r-a LAB, Moscow, Russia;
• 2018 — Wanted, Kino gallery, Moscow, Russia.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

• www.vogue.com/article/model-jolie-alien-russias-youngest-rising-artist
• theblueprint.ru/culture/art/art-podarki
• sportchic.ru/fashion/model-i-hudozhnitsa-jolie-alien-otkryvaet-svoyu-vtoruyu-vystavku-v-moskve/
• www.documentjournal.com/2018/11/model-jolie-alien-discusses-her-first-solo-art-exhibition/
• theblueprint.ru/culture/interview/jolie-alien
• www.vogue.ru/fashion/model-business/kto_takaya_zhenya_makarova
• instyle.ru/moda/nashi-v-dele-chto-nuzhno-znat-o-modeli-zhene-makarovoy/
• www.mhpi.edu.ru/all_news/jolie-alien/
• typical-moscow.ru/vystavka-jolie-alien-ritz-carlton/ 
• www.kommersant.ru/doc/4550243
• theblueprint.ru/fashion/industry/art-fashion-russia
• m.vk.com/@storagemag-jolie-alien
• models.com/oftheminute/?p=99486
• models.com/oftheminute/?p=114030

Ilya Kutoboy is an illustrator based in Moscow. In 2013 he graduated from the BVShD "Graphic Design" course. Collaborated with the illustrator agency BANG! BANG! STUDIO, RBC style and others.

EDUCATION:

• 2017 — Illustration Workshop, Russian Reporter Summer School
• 2017 — Design Legends, Future London Academy, London
• 2011–2013 — Basic Graphic Design Course, British Higher School of Design (BHSD)
• 1997–2002 — Faculty of Physics and Technology, KSU

SELECTED SOLO AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

• 2023 — Blazar, a—s—t—r—a gallery, Moscow
• 2022 — a—s—t—r—a Open.Vol 1, a—s—t—r—a gallery, CSI Winzavod, Moscow
• 2022 — blazar young art fair, Museum of Moscow, Moscow
• 2021 — Syndrome of Tropical States, Moscow / Khlebzavod
• 2021 — MOST contemporary art auction, Krasnodar
• 2014 — Prosmotr, St. Petersburg
• 2014 — Time for art, Moscow

"Initially, my fascination with art started with music. Music for me is a big field for experimentation. I've participated in different genre projects, recorded solo albums and I'm a big music lover.

I call my style at the moment - "Tropical Primitivism". The theme of tropics appeared in my work thanks to my numerous travels to the islands of Asia and Indonesia - the heat and raging vegetation of those places have deeply sprouted inside me.

In my works I like to mix painting and graphics, scraps of phrases and words, superimpose ghostly or more concrete images on each other, which remind me of dreams with a non-linear plot. Often the heroes of my works are animals and plants, peculiar ladies and creatures who find themselves on the same plane of the ever-changing carnival of life.

I think it is great when art does not carry strict dogmas, but expands the boundaries of our imagination. I try not to forget that I'm just stardust."

- artist Ilya Kutoboy

Anna Pavlova was born in 1991.

After finishing secondary school in 2008-2014, she studied at Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Design and Applied Arts, specialising in artistic ceramics. 

In 2011, she became co-founder and designer of the Mineral Weather jewellery brand, with which she participated in international exhibitions in Paris, Milan, Copenhagen and Barcelona.

In 2016, Mineral Weather teamed up with 6 brands to open its own Ampersand jewellery shop.

Since 2016, she has been working on ceramic sculpture in contemporary art and taking part in exhibitions and art fairs.

"Everything I do is a reflection of what's going on around me, my experiences spilling out into objects. I interact with the world through plastic statements on the level of tactile-sensory language."

• 2023 - "Arty Advent", Liza Fetisova Gallery, Paris
• 2022 - "Isn't the color white what gets rid of darkness?", solo exhibition, lobby, Moscow
• 2022 — blazar young art fair, a-s-t-r-a gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2022 — a-s-t-r-a Open.Vol 1, a-s-t-r-a gallery, Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2022 — Délices et Malices, Liza Fetissova Gallery, Paris, France.
• 2022 — Invasion, solo exhibition, Liza Fetissova gallery, Paris, France.
• 2022 — Homo Faber, Michelandgelo Foundation, Venice, Italy.
• 2021 — A Family Story, Liza Fetissova gallery, Paris, France.
• 2021 — Workspace: untitled, Azot gallery, Cub, Moscow, Russia.
• 2020 — We know it’s going to happen but, flat of director of Austrian cultural forum, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 —  Analpha-bettes, solo exhibition, Transatlantique gallery + Liza Fetissova Gallery, Paris, France.
• 2019 — Chamber of Secrets, library N67, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Revelation, fair, Grand Palais, Paris, France.
• 2019 — Re_generation, Dety Marii, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — I Feel Warm and Scared, Ovcharenko gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Baikonur now, Аrhiv space, NIIDAR, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Artdacha of Riabuschinskii, exibition of the results of the residence, Vyshny Volochek, Russia.
• 2018 — End of Sunset, the roof of Setun area, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Project Element. Earth, White Room Foundation, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Abrakadabra, The 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow, Russia.
• 2017 — Designed by a cyborg, OS.MOS / AWG Society, Moscow, Russia.

Nesterov Slava was born in Perm in 1989. Lives and works in Moscow.

«In my practice, I am looking for points at which the semi-capitalist regime, based on the production of signs, can manifest itself through the material environment. The works cover the relationship between materiality, information flows, economics and technology. They can give birth to a kind of archeology that involves the construction of new myths. The projects have an object-oriented aesthetic. Complex connections, between which it is difficult to establish correlations, are an attempt to consider the actual reality nonlinearly, multilayered, with the inclusion of chaos and chances in it.

«In my projects I use such visual forms as installation, sculpture, graphics, digital art. The main principles of work are the deconstruction of myths and work with post-history, on the ruins of which a new «world of life» is born». 

Slava Nesterov

EDUCATION:

• 2018-2020 — Contemporary Art, British Higher School of Art and Design, Moscow, Russia.
• 2017-2019 — New Art Strategies, Joseph Backstein Institute of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
• 2007-2012 — Modern Theories of Human Capital, Perm State National Research University, Perm, Russia.

PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS:

• 2021 — A Little Death and a Little Love, museum-residence Artkommunalka, Kolomna, Russia.
• 2020 — Absent-minded Observation, Syntax gallery, Cube Moscow, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Immortalitas Vulgaris / Ordinary Immortality, Dom molodezhi gallery, Smolensk, Russia.
• 2019 — Actants, art residence Tsvetnye Gory, Sochi, Russia.
• 2019 — Untitled, Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantin Sorokin Foundation, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Red lines, The First Popular Science Library, Moscow, Russia.
• 2017 — Cyclocosmia, art residence Quartariata, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2015 — Personal Spaces, Loader's House Laboratory of Contemporary Art, Perm, Russia.
• 2015 — Limits, BM50 art space, St. Petersburg, Russia.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

• 2021 — Living Matter, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — Nonlinear Episode, ISSMAG gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — Museum of Artificial History, State Darwin Museum, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — The Sun is Unlucky, Daipyat gallery, Voronezh, Russia.
• 2021 — Gangster Baroque, Name gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2021 — The Dark Side of the Rainbow, White Room Foundation, Moscow, Russia.
• 2020 — Classics, Open studios, Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — In Search of a Beginning, Zaryadye Media Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Communities, Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Globalization and the Unknown, Noumen travel agency, CTI Fabrika, Olivier Hall, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Slice, Sevkabel, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2018 — Moscow Conceptualism. Communication, ArtPlay Media, Moscow,, Russia.
• 2019 — What Worries You?, workshop by Ilya Kabakov, Moscow, Russia.
• 2017 — Cyclocosmia, Perm State Scientific Research University, Perm, Russia.
• 2017 — Talking about Rothko, Central Exhibition Hall, Perm, Russia.
• 2016 — My Universities, PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, Russia.
• 2016 — Form of the Invisible, Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2016 — Living Emptiness, PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, Russia.
• 2015 — War and Peace, Perm art residence, Perm, Russia.
• 2014 — The Big Bang Theory, Solyanka State Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2014 — Relics of Reflections, St. Petersburg, Russia.

RESIDENCES:

• 2021 — Artkommunalka museum-residence, Kolomna, Russia.
• 2020-2021 — White Room Foundation, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019-2020 — Open Studios, Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Art residence Tsvetnye Gory, Sochi, Russia.
• 2019 — Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantin Sorokin Foundation, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Art residence Kronshtadt, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2017 — Art residence Quartariata, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Egor Laptarev was born in 1984 in the city of Maykop, in 2000 he moved to Moscow.

After graduating from the Abramtsevo Art and Industrial College named after Vasnetsov continued his studies at the Academy of Arts named after Repin (St. Petersburg) at the faculty of monumental painting. At the moment he is studying at the School of Contemporary Art «Free Workshops» at MMOMA (Moscow).

In his work Egor turns to various types of arts: easel painting, graphics, sculpture, video art, street art and mosaics. The main theme of his work is the image of the human body, presented in different contexts. Over the past years, he has been working in his unique technique - applying paint in several layers, he hides the original image under it. Egor modifies the classic drawing and experiments with materials, this way of creating a work allows to change the course of the plot in the process. Keti Bogomaz, Art critic

«I work with the theme of physicality and aesthetics of the exposure of the human body. Using the skills of the academic drawing school, I modify the classic drawing and experiment with materials.
Over the past years, I have been working in my technique: I apply several layers of paint to the initial drawing, after which I open the image in fragments. Removing some of the paint, I then expose parts of the body, then hide them. This way of creating a work allows you to change the course of the plot in the process of work.I put a classic drawing in an abstract space, where it splits up and loses its original appearance». Egor Laptarev

SERIES «MANIFESTED», 2020

• 2022 — Process S-41, exhibition of MMOMA students, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — Freedom, group exhibition, Moscow Union of Artists, Moscow, Russia.
• 2021 — Art Russia Fair 2021, Contemporary Art Fair, Gostiny Dvor, Moscow, Russia.
• 2020 — NII SREDA: shaping the environment within the framework of the Art-Space-Hopping project with the support of the Museum of Moscow, group exhibition, Moscow, Russia.
• 2020 — two charity auctions to help doctors fighting the pandemiс.
• 2020 — The Manifeste solo show curated by a-s-t-r-a gallery, Cube.Moscow, Moscow, Russia.
• 2019 — Dream of the Gods, joint project for the museum night of the Museum of 20th and 21th Century Saint-Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2019 — LEVELS, group exhibition, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2019 — Dyatlov Pass, DK Gromova, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2018 — Group therapy session, Poligraf cech gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2018 — Lingwe Universala, Sevkabel Plant, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2018 — Overcoming, Manege Central exhibition hall, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2018 — Disciplinary spaces, Erarta Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2017-2018 — Against All curated by Anatoly Osmolovsky, VLADEY gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2017 — Point of mind, joint exhibition with artist Julia Belova, Molbert gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2016 — Phantasmagoria, State Hermitage museum (Vyborg branch), Vyborg, Russia.
• 2015 — The World of sad clowns, PENZA Art Residences, Penza, Russia.
• 2015 — Charity art-marathon, K35 Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• 2014 — Essence, ArtMuza gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• 2013 — 1st International Exhibition of Monumental Art, Beijing, China.
• 2011 — A mobile exhibition of young artists of Russia, Guangzhou / Guilin / Shendzhen, China.
• 2009 — Exhibition of young artists of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, San Diego, USA.
  
  

HONORS AND AWARDS:

• 2014 — First place in the competition of illustrations for stories by Victor Pelevin, conducted by the publishing house EKSMO. Illustrations published in the collected works of V. Pelevin, Moscow, Russia.
• 2014 — One of the winners in the competition «Indistinct image» and "Metaphysical head» by artist Mikhail Shemyakin Foundation, St. Petersburg, Russia.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

• www.afisha.ru/exhibition/238992/ 
• artmuza.spb.ru/events/264-vystavka-egora-laptareva-suschnosti.html 
• vyborg-press.ru/articles/29708/ 
• www.culture.ru/events/120533/vystavka-phantasmagoria