Kolobok
Material: The work is executed in acrylic on canvas using dense painterly textures and layered color transitions. The surface combines expressive modeling with areas of blurred dissolution, creating a visceral tactile quality that enhances the physical presence of the image. Object: The composition presents a distorted, rounded anthropomorphic head emerging from a dark undefined background. Facial features appear fragmented, melted or multiplied, forming an unsettling mask-like presence. Below the head, schematic rectangular elements resembling screens, panels or compartments introduce a secondary visual layer that contrasts organic deformation with structured geometry. Concept: Kolobok reinterprets a well-known character from Slavic folklore through a contemporary psychological and socio-political lens. Instead of a playful narrative figure, the image becomes a symbol of transformation, manipulation and loss of innocence. The distorted face suggests the pressure of external forces and the erosion of identity in conditions of instability and conflict. By combining elements of grotesque figuration with references to mediated reality, the artist reflects on how collective myths, propaganda and traumatic experience reshape perception. The painting constructs a disturbing allegory of survival in a fractured world, where familiar cultural symbols acquire new, darker meanings.
Kolobok at Zeppel Inn