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BIOGRAPHY
My cultural heritage encourages me to understand and blend cultural and historical influences in my art. I was raised in Kiev, an ancient city more than 1,500 years old, and I also lived in and studied art in St. Petersburg. Both places belong to a land eternally poised between East and West and endlessly alternating in the receipt of Eastern and Western influences.
Most of my works are inspired by the cultural traditions of one historical era or another. At times, it seems that I create my sculptures living and traveling freely through the history in search for links between the past and the present and the laws of universal harmony. In any of the cultures and times they represent, the images seem to emulate our genetic memory of mankind's cultural experience. The theme of time which is pivotal in my work, symbolizes the perpetual vitality of the world as manifested in the continuity of cultures rather than its transience.
I use a traditional process for creating my sculptures. I start with the visualization of an idea and a depiction of it in drawings. Then I make a model and finally move to a large, definite sculpture. Formal changes and adjustment for scale are made throughout the process. I enjoy combining bronze or welded steel elements with clay forms. Including metal supportive elements, I am seeking sculpture which moves and extends itself in and through space, with space being incorporated as an active formal element. Furthermore, my sculpture is no longer anchored to the base as a heavy mass but begins to elevate itself, touching and supporting itself on multiple points. The ultimate goal is to create the whole environment of which the sculpture is an integral part.
My recent work displays my obvious desire to retire from the bustle of every day routine to eternal values. The faster the flow of time, the more we tend to forget that, in fact, little is changing under the Sun: the Man eternally aspires to elevate himself from the mundane to spiritual heights, and this is the only road to immortality in art.
