Oksana Mas was born in 1969 in Ukraine.
Currently lives and works in Figueiras, Spain.

Oksana Mas is an artist, philosopher, humanist, urbanist, theorist and popularizer of contemporary art.
She participated in the 54th Venice Biennale (with a solo project, represented Ukraine), in the 55th Venice Biennale, in the 65th Film Festival in Locarno, at the Biennale "Women and Art" in Sharjah, UAE, and in numerous international exhibitions: Art Basel Miami (Miami, USA), Frieze (London, UK), FIAC (Paris), ARCOmadrid (Madrid, Spain), The Armory Show (New York, USA), Art Dubai (Dubai, UAE).

Oksana's works are sold at Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips and are in museum and private collections such as the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Stella Art Foundation, BREUS Foundation, Joerg Bongartz Collection, Sorelouzos Family Art Museum, Capital Group Art Foundation, Ekaterina Foundation , collections of Victor Pinchuk and Viktor Bondarenko.

EDUCATION:

• 2019 — Master of Fine Arts, decorative art and restoration at Poltava National Technical University
• 2014 — Master's degree in philosophy at Odessa State University named after Mechnikov
• 2003 — Bachelor of Philosophy at Odessa State University named after Mechnikov
• 1992 — Odessa State School of Arts named after M.B. Grekov
• 1986 — Illichivsk School of Arts (Illichivsk, Odessa region, Ukraine)

PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS:

• 2019 — AMBIT. Galeria d’Art, Barcelona, ​​Spain
• 2018 — Oksana Mas. Spiritual cities. Sotheby’s, Milan, Italy
• 2017 — Oksana Mas. Spiritual cities. Art Ukraine Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine
• 2017 — Oksana Mas. Spiritual cities. MA*GA Museum, Galarate, Italy
• 2017 — Oksana Mas. Spiritual Cities. Malpensa Airport, Milano, Italy
• 2017 — Gravity and glass. NK Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
• 2015 — Oksana Mas. Get together. ArtFactory Istambul, Istanbul, Turkey
• 2014 — Oksana Mas. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts, Kazakhstan, Almaty
• 2013 — Renewal of the Sacred. House of the Nobleman, London, UK
• 2013-2011 — Biomorphic realism. Mironova Gallery, Kiev, Ukraine
• 2012, 2018 — Die Gestalt. TRIUMPH Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• 2012 — Black & White. Bengelsträter Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany
• 2012 — River Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
• 2012 — Helium-3 and other Works. Barbarian gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2012 — Barclays Bank, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2011 — Post-vs-Proto-Renaissance. Ukrainian Pavilion. 54th Venice Biennale, Italy
• 2010 — Helium-3. Aidan Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• 2010 — Retrospective. Casamor’s Foundation, Museo Dali de Figueras, Figeyras, Spain
• 2009 — When Stars Align. Zorya Fine Art Gallery, New York, USA
• 2009, 2008 — Mimesis Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
• 2008 — MAS. Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
• 2007 — Hired to Dream. Aidan Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• 2006 — Assembly point. Gallery T. Ladyzhinsky, Odessa, Ukraine
• 2005 — Photo exhibition "The phenomenon of epidermism." Gallery "Karas", Kiev, Ukraine
• 2005 — Black and white reverse. RIS Gallery, Barcelona, ​​Spain
• 2004 — Oksana Mas. Odessa State Art Museum, Odessa, Ukraine
• 2003 — Oksana Mas. Museum of Western-Eastern Art, Odessa, Ukraine
• 2003 — Everyday Originality. Exhibition Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
• 2002 — Oksana Mas. Center for Contemporary Art "Soviart", Kiev, Ukraine
• 2002 — The project "365". Central exhibition complex "Morvokzal", Odessa, Ukraine
• 2001 — Oksana Mas. Odessa State Art Museum, Odessa, Ukraine
• 1997 — Oksana Mas. Picture Gallery Valkenburg, Netherlands
• 1997 — Oksana Mas. M-Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
• 1997 — Oksana Mas. Museum of Fine Arts, Illichivsk, Ukraine
• 1995 — Oksana Mas. Museum of Fine Arts, Illichivsk, Ukraine
• 1995 — Oksana Mas. Central Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists, Kiev, Ukraine
• 1995 — Oksana Mas. UN Exhibition Hall in Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

• 2020 — Cosmoscow Art Fair, Москва, Россия
• 2019 — AMBIT. Galeria d’Art, Barcelona, ​​Spain
• 2018 — Oksana Mas Monostand at Shanghai Design Exhibition
• 2017 — Contemporary Istanbul. Monostand NK Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
• 2016 — COSMOSCOW 2016. Monostand of the International Heritage Art Gallery
• 2014 — 5th Biennale of female art "Women and Art". Museum of Modern Art, Sharjah, UAE
• 2013 — Project "Glasstress" at the 55th Venice Biennale. Venice, Italy
• 2013 — Art India. Mumbai, India
• 2013 — White Light / White Heat. Glasstress project for the 55th Venice Biennale. London, Great Britain
• 2013 — Pre-auction exhibition. Munich, Germany
• 2013, 2009 - Sotheby's pre-auction exhibition. London, Great Britain
• 2013 — Christie's Pre-auction Exhibition. London, Great Britain
• 2012 — MAS & PICASSO. Monte Carlo, Monaco
• 2012 — ViennaFair. Vienna, Austria
• 2013-2011 — Art Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe, Germany
• 2011 — 54 Venetian Biennale. Venice, Italy
• 2011 — The Glory of Ukraine. International Meridian Center, Washington, USA
• 2010-2006 — ART Moscow. Moscow, Russia
• 2010 — ART Chicago. Chicago, USA
• 2010-2007 — Fiac. Paris, France
• 2010 — ARCO. Madrid, Spain
• 2010-2008, 2006 — Art Dubai. Dubai, UAE
• 2009 — The Armory Show. New York, USA
• 2013, 2011-2009 — ART Kiev. Kiev, Ukraine
• 2007 — The Movement. Evolution. Art. Cultural Foundation "Ekaterina", Moscow, Russia
• 2007, 2006 — Art Basel Miami. Miami, USA
• 2010, 2009, 2005 — Group exhibitions at the Aidan Gallery. Moscow, Russia
• 2005 — Moscow International Fair of Fine Arts. Manege, Moscow, Russia
• 1999 — Foundation of Russian Artists. Paris, France
• 1999 — Golden-Art-Gallery. Cologne, Germany
• 2000, 1998 — "Marine-2000" Biennale. Odessa, Ukraine
• 1997 — Hall Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 1997 — Municipal Exhibition Hall, Maastricht, Netherlands
• 1996 — French Cultural Center, Kiev, Ukraine

SPECIAL PROJECTS:

• 2012 — Oksana Mas's project “The Phenomenon of Epidermism” won an independent critics prize at the 65th Locarno Film Festival
• 2011 — The unique mosaic group “Look Into Eternity”, consisting of 15,000 hand-painted Easter eggs, was donated and installed at the Hagia Sophia of Kiev Museum (XI century)
• 2011 — On the central avenue of Monte Carlo Henri Dunant, the works of the “Sphere of Good and Spiritual Renaissance” by Oksana Mas were installed. Prince Albert II of Monaco chose Oksana Mas's “Spheres of Good and Spiritual Revival” and Anish Kapoor mirrors for installation in Monte Carlo, Monaco

THEY ARE AMOUNG US

The biblical subtext is nearly omnipresent in contemporary art. It's the inertia of Christian civilization, which rules the sphere of sublime and symbolic. Attempts to link images to the Good Book are natural in cases where a dimension of timelessness is needed. Oksana Mas is also interested in the tension between mythology and image, and so she infuses her series "They are among Us" with biblical subtexts. The heroes of the series are common both for her work and the recreational urban spaces she scans to find the subjects for her paintings. Starting from the Renaissance the artist looks for a model to feature in his take on the biblical theme. Mas goes the other way round: her beloved scenes of rest and bliss are inscribed with biblical allusions. The series bear a stylistic resemblance to the base layer of paintings in the "Hired to Dream" series. Full-color paintings become more abstract, however, the contours wander, appear and disappear, and the forms tend to sphere in the style of Hans Arp or early Archile Gorky. Sometimes the paintings give an air of gothic glass-stained windows; the use of lacquer enforces that impression. The people and the space in paintings tend to be close in form and color intensity. The colors feel saturated, much like in decoratively rich paintings of Pierre Bonnard or Eduard Vuillard. One of the most memorable images of the series is called "God's Fool". It is an ageless person seated near a couple of young(ish) women. His facial features are erased in a manner of 1920s Malevich. In his depictions of kolkhoz workers, he searched for a formula to paint the body after abstraction. It seems that there has been a sacral subtext at work also: Malevich wanted to find an ideal type. This type was not to be depicted with the help of individualization and other realistic techniques. Mas has other reasons to "forget" the facial features. Biblical heroes emerge anonymously; they converge with the fabric of the outside world. Otherwise Mas' narrative would come too close to be particular, and the images would fall prey to endless references to iconography of the past. Plus, Mas is not a witness to a miracle, but simply arranges the constellations of matter "by the Book", according to an overused mythology. It's not surprising then, that some compositions are taken whale from other series by Mas. Acouple reclining on the grass is, of course, "Hired to Dream". Pigeons, as always, make reappearance, but Mas is reluctant to let them play roles from the Bible. As ever, the space of Mas' paintings is more readily associated with the subject of "Rest on the Flight to Egypt", and if the depicted people are close to revealing their biblical selves, their actions are bound to be as peaceful as the atmosphere that surrounds them.

Text Valentine Djakonov

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

• mmoma.ru/exhibitions/petrovka25/oksana_mas/
• www.interior.ru/art/2817-oksana-mas-transfiguratsiya.html
• www.heritage-gallery.ru/kopiya-art-lanskoj
• moskvichmag.ru/lyudi/eto-moj-gorod-hudozhnitsa-oksana-mas/
• viola.bz/egg-mosaics-by-oksana-mas/
• vsemart.com/painted-egg-mosaics-oksana-mas/
• www.meridian.org/thegloryofukraine/oksanagallery.html
• estetmag.ru/365-zhizn-na-vsyu-ostavshuyusya-zhizn-personalnaya-vystavka-oksany-mas-v-cube-moscow
• snob.ru/entry/157604/

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.

Born in 1987 in the city of Kopeysk, Chelyabinsk region.

Graduated from I.I. Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute in 2014 (graphic arts department, workshop of Andrei Alexeevich Pakhomov).

From 2014 to 2017 he studied at the creative studios of the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.  His works are in the collections of the Fabergé Museum, BREUS Foudation, the private collection of the head of the Guerlain House and in other collections in Russia and abroad. 

The work presented in the "Deformation" series captures the process of profound changes during the experience of something that comes from the outside, the metamorphosis that occurs inside a person in the process of reflection, the scarring of events and the experience of them and the very thought of them, which distort our cognitive shell.

"Having received an art academic education, I continue to develop in various modern media, being in search of new forms and images, I am constantly experimenting with artistic languages. But the lion's share of my fine practice is still black and white graphics.

In my work, I often come across academic drawing with modern trends, at the moment on the verge of between them is the most interesting space for research for me. It is there that you can find out the limits of normality and subjectivity, reality and mysticism, releasing the images of the subconscious in a more accessible visual manner.

Creativity must always be sincere to find its viewer. Creativity is a constant search for our sides. This is a pleasure from the find. This is a continuous resentment from what has already been done, as a sign that it is necessary to move on.

While working on illustrations for Bram Stoker's Dracula, I needed to find a solution for the performance of this piece. Having tried several techniques, the choice fell on the monotype. The miraculous magic of printing, its randomness bribed me, forced me to look for new images and meanings. In parallel with the work on illustrations for the dark novel, the Warp series was born.

Deformation (from Lat. Deformatio - "distortion") - a change in the relative position of body particles associated with their movement relative to each other. This series presents the deep deformations occurring inside a person. Perceptions of events, experiences and thoughts, as well as external factors pass through us, distorting the cognitive shell. Deformation is the fixation of these sensations." (Pavel Bushuev)

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND AWARDS

• 2022 - St. Petersburg Art Fair "1703", a-s-t-r-a gallery, Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg
• 2022 — Program Art Moscow within the framework of the 48th Russian Antique Salon, a-s-t-r-a gallery. Gostiny Dvor, Moscow
• 2021 — Program Art Moscow within the framework of the 46th Russian Antique Salon, a-s-t-r-a gallery. Gostiny Dvor, Moscow
• 2021 — "Russian Shield", St. Petersburg, Russia
• 2020 — Group exhibition "Kholotel", Moscow, Russia
• 2020 — Cosmoscow Art Fair, Moscow, Russia
• 2019 — ART Event Suspense. Brackhausen Mansion, St. Petersburg
• 2019 — ART Event Suspense 2.0. Sevcable Port, St. Petersburg
• 2018 — Intervention. Hermitage, General Staff Building, St. Petersburg
• 2018 — International Fifth Biennale of Graphics. Romania
• 2012 — International Art Exhibition. Beijing, China
• 2011 — 1st place in the competition for the design of the Olympic bill
• 2010 — International Art Exhibition. Seoul, Korea

Igor Litvinov was born in 1962 in Vitebsk, a city which is one of the centers of classical avant-garde, where Chagall, Malevich, Lisitsky and other representatives of this trend lived and created. This determined the creative path of the author, who works in the style of abstract expressionism.

From 1983 to 1988 Litvinov studied at the Art and Graphic Department of Vitebsk State Pedagogical University.

At the end of the 1980s, he began attending the studio of Alexander Solovyov, the oldest abstractionist in Belarus. The relationship between the master and his pupil grew into a great friendship. It was this communication that laid the foundation on which Igor Litvinov's own style was formed. 

From 1995 to 2017 Igor Litvinov lived in Nazareth, Israel. During this period the artist worked and exhibited a lot in different countries: Spain, Sweden, USA, etc. 

In 2005, at the MoRA Museum in New Jersey, he took part in an exhibition devoted to Malevich, where works by Malevich and many nonconformists from Russia were on display.

Together with his creative work, his spiritual worldview is formed. Years of research into the phenomenon of personal freedom, the relationship between personal and creative freedom, the relationship between religion and contemporary art - all this is the basis of the artist's paintings.

Since 2017 Igor Litvinov lives and works in Moscow, is active in creative work, exhibiting in leading art spaces.

The works are in the collections of the Museum of Russian Art (New Jersey, USA), the Nesterov Bashkir State Art Museum (Ufa, Russia) and private collections in Russia and abroad. The works are in the collections of the M.I. Nesterov Bashkir State Art Museum (Ufa, Russia), Vitebsk Center of Contemporary Art (Vitebsk, Belarus) as well as in private collections in Russia and abroad.

SELECTED GROUP AND SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

• 2022 - St. Petersburg Art Fair "1703", a-s-t-r-a gallery, Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg
• 2022 - Art Moscow Program at the 48th Russian Antique Salon, a-s-t-r-a gallery. Gostiny Dvor, Moscow
• 2021 - ARTSUMMER, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• 2020 - Personal Expressionism exhibition, Antique Center, Moscow
• 2020 - NEW REALITY. To the 100th anniversary of UNOVIS, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• 2019 - 5th ANTIBIENNALE, Central House of Artists, Moscow
• 2019 - 4th rencontre arts plastiques de Mesnil-Église, Belgium
• 2019 - "Litvinov and Friends", Gostiny Dvor, Moscow
• 2019 - 4th ANTIBIENNALE, Central House of Artists, Moscow
• 2018 - 3rd ANTIBIENNALE, Central House of Artists, Moscow
• 2018 - 2nd ANTIBIENNALE, Central House of Artists, Moscow
• 2018 - "Brutal tenderness" personal exhibition, Central House of Artists, Moscow
• 2017 - "Four Stories", Central House of Artists, Moscow
• 2017 - "Free Space", Central House of Artists, Moscow
• 2017 - 1st ANTIBIENNALE, Central House of Artists, Moscow
• 2017 - "ART-UFA", Ufa
• 2016 - Art Space, Vitebsk, Belarus
• 2015 - Center for Contemporary Art, Vitebsk, Belarus
• 2012 - Mika Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
• 2010 - En-Hod Gallery, Haifa, Israel
• 2009 - Tsarskoselskaya Collection Museum, St. Petersburg
• 2009 - Volga Gallery, Moscow
• 2006 - Teatron, Haifa, Israel
• 2005 - MoRA Museum of Russian Art, New Jersey, USA
• 2004 - Gallery Agora, New York, USA
• 2003 - Bunker Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2002 - Pyramida Gallery Haifa, Israel
• 2001 - Castro Gallery, Haifa, Israel
• 2000 - Angel Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
• 1998 - Zafon Gallery, Haifa, Israel
• 1998 - Art Expo, Barcelona, Spain.
• 1997 - En-Hod Gallery, Haifa, Israel.
• 1993 - Center of Contemporary Art, Vitebsk, Belarus
• 1991 - Center of Marc Chagall, Vitebsk, Belarus

"Igor Litvinov's art is at the cutting edge of the problem of overcoming the personal emotional element for the sake of entering the open space of absolute pictorial freedom. The method chosen by the artist is not simply to show the obvious inferiority of "reality," but to contrast the absurdity of what is happening in the material world with the transcendental chaos in which absolute pain reigns. The fractured, distorted, deliberately caricatured human characters are presented in combination with a tragic, anxiously expressive, extremely tense abstract background.

However, this seemingly natural stylistic unity in Litvinov's canvases turns into a mysterious counterpoint - a polyphonic chord paradoxically combining ruthlessness and compassion, bottomless infernal spaces and the saving will to light, hopelessness and hope, hell and purgatory. Fixing the drama (or comedy - but in the Dantean interpretation) of unity and opposition of everything to everything, the artist's optics nevertheless has the gift of penetrating into the abstract-concrete nature of space-time, including through an appeal to the oldest cultural codes and mythologemes. Igor Litvinov actively uses the metaphysical plasticity of the archaic as a means of self-purification from the dictates of linear logic and common sense in order to achieve the sacred ecstasy of clairvoyance, allowing him to guide the viewer through the inferior labyrinths of otherworldliness in order to prepare him for the coming cataclysms.

Igor Litvinov considers art and especially the mystery of painting to be an endless mystery without beginning or end, once and for all, in which the artist breaks off all contact with anything and plunges completely into the magical ritual as an irrational element of the unpredictable. A succession of seemingly wild, barbaric images born with his brush and temperament is shaped into a kind of pictorial action akin to shamanic rises and plunges into parallel worlds. As a result, the disturbing, stinging, impetuously aggressive and lethal strokes are transformed into an epic symphony of volcanic magma, the ideal building material of the end times.

Each canvas by Igor Litvinov is another radical experiment, a leap into the abyss, the madness of a brave professional who sacrifices his own spiritual and bodily existence, and, as an apotheosis, a furious dissection of reality, designed to indicate and confirm the artistic will of the author, who in his own way manifests the eternal relevance of expressionism for today and for tomorrow". Igor Dudinsky, art critic