During the month of March, Troika Gallery features new and whimsical works by one of its most popular painters, Russian classical artist Victor Nizovtsev. The show opens on March 6 with a reception and artist talk and runs from March 6-31, 2009.
Nizovtsev is a masterful oil painter who creates theatrical figurative composition, fantasy, landscapes, and still life. While he completed his professional art training in Russia, as an artist Nizovtsev is a student of rich and diverse experiences. Whether from Greek mythology, Russian folklore, childhood impressions, great Masters of the past, or routine daily life, inspiration for his art comes from the realms of the world around him. His artistic voice springs from his homeland, a place he describes as a buffer between the East and the West. His education and deep affection for both western civilization and the uniquely Russian influences on him, have allowed him to develop an unmistakable, universally understood, style of visual communication.
Victor Nizovtsev was born in 1965 in Central Siberia, in the city of Ulan-Ude near Lake Baikal. He learned classical drawing and painting techniques during his school years in the Republic of Moldova and St. Petersburg. He began his studies at the age of seven, when he entered Hincesti’s Art School for Children in Moldava, Chisinau. He continued his studies at Illa Replin School for Art in Chisinau and the prestigious Vera Muhina University for Industrial Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia. He served a mandatory two year stint in the army, where his talents were used to paint military plans and pro military billboards. After receiving a degree as a fashion designer and decorative painter, he began painting for galleries in St. Petersburg and Chisinau. Nizovtsev moved to the United States twelve years ago and now lives in Maryland. He has been with Troika Gallery for eleven of those years as one of the gallery’s consistently top sellers.
Nizovtsev is known for his meticulous craftsmanship and brilliantly colored shimmering surfaces, as well as for certain major themes he continues to revisit from worlds where “truly anything is possible and everything is intriguing.” Subjects include explorations of imagined parkscapes, the Harlequin as both carrier of myth and metaphor, mermaids, and floral still lifes. Another popular theme is a genre Nizovtsev calls “small people with big hearts,” which features a colorful freedom of childhood’s curiosity and imagination, a place where youngsters can fly in a teacup or ride to a new world atop an onion. Nizovtsev says he wants his work “to take you back to your original story, where Grandma made the best sandwiches. These stories are about all of us, when we were little, neither rich nor poor, and contain nothing negative or ugly, but are tales suffused with light and happiness.”
Meet the artist at a talk/Q&A on March 6 at 7pm at the opening reception held during Easton’s First Friday Gallery Walk, which takes place from 5-9pm. Specializing in fine, classically based original art, Troika Gallery is located at 9 S. Harrison Street in downtown Easton. For more information, visit www.troikagallery.com, e mail art@troikagallery.com or phone 410.770.9190.