RUSSIA DRAWS UP NEW RULES FOR STREET ART
- Riccardo Aimerito
- Nov 19, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 15, 2023
"Dare Clan" talks about the trends in Russian street art and some of its contemporary street artist.
In Russia, street art appeared already in the late 80s during perestroika. So, it all started back in the days of the USSR. After the collapse of the USSR until 2000 in Russia street art consisted of simple graffiti drawings without a clearly ideological component. Most of all street art has been actively developing in recent years when the situation has changed: street artists have experimented with new forms of decorating the street environment, and have formed their own unique style and technique. The status of street art began to change in 2014 when the first Moscow Biennale of Street Art “Artmossfera” was held. As a result, street art (not all) became legal. What is happening now? Russia is currently one of the most creative centre of street art in Europe. It's a shame that so little is known about these artists outside of Russia. So “Dare Clan” decided to publish a list of some creative street artists (unfortunately not all) to help you discover Russian talents as Kirill Kto, Akue 1, Konstantin Zmogk and newcomers.
PASHA P183
The Russian street artist Pavel Pukhov, known to everyone as Pasha 183 or P183, has been painting on walls in different parts of Moscow and other cities. For a long time, Pasha's projects remained without proper attention, and only after his death the international world of street art started talking about him and suddenly discovered him. Pasha was a very active artist and he invested all his energy and time into his works. Today, Pavel 183 is the most famous Russian street artist who is well-known internationally as he was named "Russian Banksy" by the British press.
Petr Gerasimenko is a graffiti artist from Zhukovsky (near Moscow). He was born in 1984. Petro is a member of the duo “Aesthetics”. His style is mainly based on the Constructivism but recently he has increasingly experimented with figurative and abstract compositions.
Alexey Luchko aka Alexey Luka, is a talented Russian street artist and illustrator from Moscow. Since 2008, his works have been shown at international exhibitions and he himself participates in many festivals. Alexey Luka has a unique style based on geometric abstraction and on constructivism. He mainly creates colourful puzzles in which colours along with geometric lines and shapes interact with each other creating an image, a face, a landscape and so on. He has participated in numerous festivals in his country and around the world.
Sergey is a Russian graffiti artist from Ekaterinburg. He basically paints vegetation and flowers combined with abstract lettering. In this photo you can see his experimental work “Repaint” with doves hidden in the fall foliage in contrast with a grey aggressive urban context on a background.
As a trend in Russian street art we would note that it has more text works based mainly on textual composition. We should assume that this trend is very developed here maybe because the whole Russian culture is very literary-centric. A great example of this trend is Kirill Lebedev aka KIRILL KTO who is one of the most famous street artist from Moscow. Kirill Kto's textual works are meaningful for Russian street art (and not only).
In 2010 he has set up the exhibition “Mnogo bukov” (“Many books”) in the gallery "Protvor" in Saint-Petersburg, which no longer exists. He collected books for years and then brought them all together in a huge wall bookshelf in the gallery. In this way Kirill tried to show the experience of modern textual culture: a huge number of texts and books which refers to historical heritage that are destroyed by a (spray) layer of modern culture. Then these books were distributed to everyone.
Anatoly Akue started with street art in 1997. His works were exhibited at the 1st Moscow Biennale of Street Art "Artmossfera". His style combines abstract painting and it is inspired by Buddhist philosophy and images. Akue's works are multi-layered, bright and fluid which explore a person's inner transformation and show the connection between meditation and daily life experiences.
Stas Dobry is an engineer and cartoonist from Moscow. He began painting graffiti in the early 2000s. His works were presented at the 1st Moscow Biennale of Street Art "Artmossfera". His style is very expressive, instantly recognizable and it quickly captures the attention. According to Stas, the reaction of people to his works is very important.
Konstantin Zmogk began painting since the late 90s and he is one of the most famous Moscow street artists. He used to paint classic typeface and then moved to abstract forms. Zmogk has collaborated with many brands including Perrier and Converse, as well as international artists.
Dmitry Aske since 2013 has been working on monumental graphics. He is a great representative of a new generation of artists. His own unique technique stands out for multi-layer mosaic relief made of wood. Aske is also involved in educational activities: he gives lectures on graffiti and street art. Aske's largest work, “The Riders” is located under the Stroginskiy Bridge in Moscow and covers an area of 374 square meters (photo 1).
The works of the young Russian artist Nikita aka Nomerz are very popular. He was born in 1990 in Gorky and now lives in Nizhny Novgorod. Nomerz is a street artist, curator and director of documentary films. He is the author of documentary films about the famous street artist «Pasha 183» (2013). His works are characterized by the features of a "specific-place", that is he creates images and graphics connected with the structure of the specific spot.
Nikita Nomerz took part in many Street Art festivals in Russia and other countries as Belorussia, France, China and so on.
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