Monogrid: Vladimir Kartashov, the shamanic artist of web 3.0. The contemporary art market of the “very young” invests in the new generation. Two new solo exhibitions for Vladimir in Italy in only a few months: more exposure to the general public and collectors
Italy is still a big destination for artists from all over the world, a place where they get inspiration, further their studies and where they often decide to settle down.
Today, I am going to talk to you about Vladimir Kartashov, a very young emerging artist who is getting plenty of attention from the public and collectors (https://www.we-wealth.com/news/pleasure-assets/Arte/collezionare arte-contemporanea).
Vladimir arrived in Italy last June, precisely in Pietrasanta, when he was invited by Emilian Zakharov, a Russian doctor and gallery owner from a family that has been involved in art for over 300 years. After the outbreak of the war, Emilian decided to spend more time in Italy, especially in Pietrasanta where he had already stayed for
longer periods, over the years. He immediately launched the TG Residency contemporary art gallerist project, a residency format for young emerging foreign artists in Pietrasanta, where creatives are invited to stay and produce their works.
The first two artists in residence were Siberian Vladimir Kartashov and Apollinaria Broche, of Franco-Russian origins; their residency ended with a two-person exhibition in Milan, coordinated by Lorenzo Belli. The exhibition of the young artists, which was entitled ‘Stream the Dream’, took place from 23 November to 23 December at Atelier Balderi, in the spaces of Archivio Iginio Balderi, where art exhibitions have been held since 2019 – coordinated by art curator Lorenzo Belli.
On show, for the first time in Europe, are Vladimir’s huge oil canvases depicting a landscape made up of pop symbols linked to the Web, in an everyday setting, while Apollinaria is exhibiting an installation that includes glazed ceramic sculptures inspired by Lorenzetti’s fresco “Allegory and Effects of Good and Bad Government”. After the Milan exhibition, Vladimir’s residency in Pietrasanta continued, leading to a second solo exhibition,
which opened on 17 December at Ex Marmi in Pietrasanta, within the Project Space contemporary art gallery – in collaboration with TG Residency.
Here, the artist presented a series of large canvases, almost two by three meters, reminiscent of altarpieces and predella in which the observer’s gaze is guided by a visual-narrative construction.
What is most striking about Vladimir’s work is the combination of classicism and the mastery of the oil technique, integrated into the work’s subjects, which are linked to pop and virtual culture. Despite being so geographically and culturally distant, Vladimir depicts the symbols and characters that represent the Western world, as well as famous brand names, fantasy figures from cartoons and much more.
About Vladimir
Vladimir was born in 1997 and grew up in Magadan, a very remote part of Russia on the Sea of Okhotsk, and the address in his ID says “Tundra”.
At the age of 12, after his parents separated, Vladimir was sent to live with his grandmother in Siberia, in the Zapodnaya area. His family had lived there for generations and his grandmother was a descendant of ethnic Asian groups that had inhabited these territories long before the Russians. Her cultural substratum was a mix of Shamanism and the Orthodox Christian Church.
In Vladimir’s family, women received a magical gift, handed down from generation to generation, as well as knowledge of practices such as dream interpretation, healing rituals and prescience. These cultural and spiritual rituals were crucial in Vladimir’s early life as they allowed him to develop special and profound sensitivity.
When Vladimir was only 14 years old, he decided to move to Novosibirsk where he attended an art school. He rented a room in a shared flat and paid the rent with the money he earned online playing World of Warcraft. His job as a ‘Gamer’ (https://www.we-wealth.com/news/investimenti/altri-prodotti/esports-in-italia-come investono-gli-egamers) allowed him to delve deep into the Web, which gave him access to a ‘global culture’, something that did not exist in the place where he had been raised.
In the same way – through the Web – he approached Greek mythology with all its human ‘dynamics’, somehow finding a link and a connection between the tragedies of the human soul described by the Greeks, shamanic mystical journeys into the underground, and the fantasy world of novels and online games. Vladimir continued his studies at the Russian art school where he learned classical performance techniques. This classical and contemporary dichotomic mix is the humus of Vladimir’s works: the analog world comes to life through ancient painting techniques, using oil color, combing it with the portrayed subjects, which speak of the global digital pop culture he belongs to.
In Vladimir’s works, everything is connected – the past, the present and the future. He describes his works as: ‘A world without borders’.
In 2017, Vladimir managed to graduate and cause a scandal too. He was asked by his masters to paint an allegory of the Soviet generals that won the Great Patriotic War, but the artist presented a diptych in which he denounced the war.
In 2022, he moved to Moscow when Russia went to war with Ukraine, but Vladimir was called to enroll in the army; failure to comply would have meant being considered a deserter. A few days later, helped by Emilian Zakharov, he left the country and arrived in Italy.
Vladimir and Emilian
The one who truly believed in Vladimir’s talent was Emilian Zakharov himself, who brought him to Versilia where, thanks to a residence permit, he will be able to stay for 2023. Emilian met Vladimir a couple of years ago when he was invited to an exhibition to present the works of a few students. There, he saw Vladimir’s works for the first time and was enchanted by them, and the young artist’s career began.
The passion that this creative young man puts into his work is all-encompassing. For Vladimir, painting is an absolute priority, moreover, through his works, he hopes to tell a story of ‘hope’.
Vladimir has been in Italy for several months now, and he is having a very positive experience here, even though his greatest wish would be for mankind to live in one world without borders, with global peace. In some way, one of the profound motivations that drove Vladimir to become a painter is precisely this vision, the desire to give life to a perfect world, one that is different from reality: animating a mystical universe made up of dreamlike and digital journeys, through impressive representations.
Works
In Vladimir’s works, one can see exceptional vital energy emanating from the Russian Far East and Siberia and a linguistic reference to Buddhist tangkas, combined with a breath of contemporary digital culture. The mysticism his grandmother transmitted to him, combined with the Web, are two sides of the same coin: the offline world and the online world. These are the themes the artist deals with; the paintings are a mix of symbols that appear on the Internet, in his dreams and life. Vladimir tells us: ‘To interpret dreams, one has to know and understand the symbols one sees in their dreams: for me, the smile has become the symbol of modernity. The smile is an abstract element that can be understood by many people on earth.”We find it in the form of smileys and emoticons, imprinted on every canvas by squeezing directly on it the tube of oil paint. The artist adds: “I feel that saturating my paintings with emoticons conveys the time in which I live. For me, combining the different universes in which I ‘live’ in my paintings is very important.”
Vladimir’s story is as compelling as his artistic production. We are talking about a native of Generation Z who had a very unusual childhood (without any form of technology), followed by an instinct to explore the digital world that characterizes his generation. It was in this world that Vladimir developed his artistic language, which includes two seemingly opposite sides that coexist and merge: the mystical spirituality of distant animist places and the symbols of the West, such as globalized pop culture and fantasy.
Vladimir’s works are detailed, filled with hundreds of characters and elements that make up these colorful human landscapes. The only way to grasp every detail of these meticulous works is to take a trip into the underground.
Not to be missed
In May, we are going to Vladimir Kartashov’s second solo exhibition of contemporary art in Pietrasanta – Sant’Agostino complex. The exhibition will be dedicated to his beloved grandmother who passed away in November 2022, when Vladimir was in Italy and had no way to attend her funeral and bid her a final farewell.
Italy is still a big destination for artists from all over the world, a place where they get inspiration, further their studies and where they often decide to settle down.
Today, I am going to talk to you about Vladimir Kartashov, a very young emerging artist who is getting plenty of attention fro…
Italy is still a big destination for artists from all over the world, a place where they get inspiration, further their studies and where they often decide to settle down.
Today, I am going to talk to you about Vladimir Kartashov, a very young emerging artist who is getting plenty of attention from the public and collectors (https://www.we-wealth.com/news/pleasure-assets/Arte/collezionare arte-contemporanea).
Vladimir arrived in Italy last June, precisely in Pietrasanta, when he was invited by Emilian Zakharov, a Russian doctor and gallery owner from a family that has been involved in art for over 300 years. After the outbreak of the war, Emilian decided to spend more time in Italy, especially in Pietrasanta where he had already stayed for
longer periods, over the years. He immediately launched the TG Residency contemporary art gallerist project, a residency format for young emerging foreign artists in Pietrasanta, where creatives are invited to stay and produce their works.
The first two artists in residence were Siberian Vladimir Kartashov and Apollinaria Broche, of Franco-Russian origins; their residency ended with a two-person exhibition in Milan, coordinated by Lorenzo Belli. The exhibition of the young artists, which was entitled ‘Stream the Dream’, took place from 23 November to 23 December at Atelier Balderi, in the spaces of Archivio Iginio Balderi, where art exhibitions have been held since 2019 – coordinated by art curator Lorenzo Belli.
On show, for the first time in Europe, are Vladimir’s huge oil canvases depicting a landscape made up of pop symbols linked to the Web, in an everyday setting, while Apollinaria is exhibiting an installation that includes glazed ceramic sculptures inspired by Lorenzetti’s fresco “Allegory and Effects of Good and Bad Government”. After the Milan exhibition, Vladimir’s residency in Pietrasanta continued, leading to a second solo exhibition,
which opened on 17 December at Ex Marmi in Pietrasanta, within the Project Space contemporary art gallery – in collaboration with TG Residency.
Here, the artist presented a series of large canvases, almost two by three meters, reminiscent of altarpieces and predella in which the observer’s gaze is guided by a visual-narrative construction.
What is most striking about Vladimir’s work is the combination of classicism and the mastery of the oil technique, integrated into the work’s subjects, which are linked to pop and virtual culture. Despite being so geographically and culturally distant, Vladimir depicts the symbols and characters that represent the Western world, as well as famous brand names, fantasy figures from cartoons and much more.
About Vladimir
Vladimir was born in 1997 and grew up in Magadan, a very remote part of Russia on the Sea of Okhotsk, and the address in his ID says “Tundra”.
At the age of 12, after his parents separated, Vladimir was sent to live with his grandmother in Siberia, in the Zapodnaya area. His family had lived there for generations and his grandmother was a descendant of ethnic Asian groups that had inhabited these territories long before the Russians. Her cultural substratum was a mix of Shamanism and the Orthodox Christian Church.
In Vladimir’s family, women received a magical gift, handed down from generation to generation, as well as knowledge of practices such as dream interpretation, healing rituals and prescience. These cultural and spiritual rituals were crucial in Vladimir’s early life as they allowed him to develop special and profound sensitivity.
When Vladimir was only 14 years old, he decided to move to Novosibirsk where he attended an art school. He rented a room in a shared flat and paid the rent with the money he earned online playing World of Warcraft. His job as a ‘Gamer’ (https://www.we-wealth.com/news/investimenti/altri-prodotti/esports-in-italia-come investono-gli-egamers) allowed him to delve deep into the Web, which gave him access to a ‘global culture’, something that did not exist in the place where he had been raised.
In the same way – through the Web – he approached Greek mythology with all its human ‘dynamics’, somehow finding a link and a connection between the tragedies of the human soul described by the Greeks, shamanic mystical journeys into the underground, and the fantasy world of novels and online games. Vladimir continued his studies at the Russian art school where he learned classical performance techniques. This classical and contemporary dichotomic mix is the humus of Vladimir’s works: the analog world comes to life through ancient painting techniques, using oil color, combing it with the portrayed subjects, which speak of the global digital pop culture he belongs to.
In Vladimir’s works, everything is connected – the past, the present and the future. He describes his works as: ‘A world without borders’.
In 2017, Vladimir managed to graduate and cause a scandal too. He was asked by his masters to paint an allegory of the Soviet generals that won the Great Patriotic War, but the artist presented a diptych in which he denounced the war.
In 2022, he moved to Moscow when Russia went to war with Ukraine, but Vladimir was called to enroll in the army; failure to comply would have meant being considered a deserter. A few days later, helped by Emilian Zakharov, he left the country and arrived in Italy.
Vladimir and Emilian
The one who truly believed in Vladimir’s talent was Emilian Zakharov himself, who brought him to Versilia where, thanks to a residence permit, he will be able to stay for 2023. Emilian met Vladimir a couple of years ago when he was invited to an exhibition to present the works of a few students. There, he saw Vladimir’s works for the first time and was enchanted by them, and the young artist’s career began.
The passion that this creative young man puts into his work is all-encompassing. For Vladimir, painting is an absolute priority, moreover, through his works, he hopes to tell a story of ‘hope’.
Vladimir has been in Italy for several months now, and he is having a very positive experience here, even though his greatest wish would be for mankind to live in one world without borders, with global peace. In some way, one of the profound motivations that drove Vladimir to become a painter is precisely this vision, the desire to give life to a perfect world, one that is different from reality: animating a mystical universe made up of dreamlike and digital journeys, through impressive representations.
Works
In Vladimir’s works, one can see exceptional vital energy emanating from the Russian Far East and Siberia and a linguistic reference to Buddhist tangkas, combined with a breath of contemporary digital culture. The mysticism his grandmother transmitted to him, combined with the Web, are two sides of the same coin: the offline world and the online world. These are the themes the artist deals with; the paintings are a mix of symbols that appear on the Internet, in his dreams and life. Vladimir tells us: ‘To interpret dreams, one has to know and understand the symbols one sees in their dreams: for me, the smile has become the symbol of modernity. The smile is an abstract element that can be understood by many people on earth.”We find it in the form of smileys and emoticons, imprinted on every canvas by squeezing directly on it the tube of oil paint. The artist adds: “I feel that saturating my paintings with emoticons conveys the time in which I live. For me, combining the different universes in which I ‘live’ in my paintings is very important.”
Vladimir’s story is as compelling as his artistic production. We are talking about a native of Generation Z who had a very unusual childhood (without any form of technology), followed by an instinct to explore the digital world that characterizes his generation. It was in this world that Vladimir developed his artistic language, which includes two seemingly opposite sides that coexist and merge: the mystical spirituality of distant animist places and the symbols of the West, such as globalized pop culture and fantasy.
Vladimir’s works are detailed, filled with hundreds of characters and elements that make up these colorful human landscapes. The only way to grasp every detail of these meticulous works is to take a trip into the underground.
Not to be missed
In May, we are going to Vladimir Kartashov’s second solo exhibition of contemporary art in Pietrasanta – Sant’Agostino complex. The exhibition will be dedicated to his beloved grandmother who passed away in November 2022, when Vladimir was in Italy and had no way to attend her funeral and bid her a final farewell.
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