All artworks by Oleksandr Balbyshev
Male Beauty • 3 artworks
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I like to look at a beautiful male body. Therefore, I am sad that there are so little masculine sensuality[...]
I like to look at a beautiful male body. Therefore, I am sad that there are so little masculine sensuality and beauty in the art world. About 30 years ago, a group of feminist artists, Guerrilla Girls, decided to determine the ratio of male and female nudes presented on canvases exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It turned out that male nudes are only 15%. And it seems that today the situation has not changed much. On online galleries where I sell my art, male nudes are about 20%.
While the female nude is generally regarded as a staple on the finest of museum walls, the male nude has managed to maintain an air of illicitness up until the present day, continuing to trouble people in different ways.
This phenomenon's root cause is because art history was a “white straight men only” club for a long time. Its creators have used mechanisms of suppression of rights and marginalization of minorities. And the culture of the dominant patriarchal and heterosexual discourses is still influential.
I would like to see our culture represent naked men as frequently as we do naked women to remove the shock value of the nude male. And this is my goal as an artist. I use the male nude to express erotic feelings in the same way that the female nude has been used. I am trying to explore the slippage of masculinity and redefine what it means to be male.
I integrate a male body's sensual beauty with paintings of world-famous artists like Claude Monet, Van Gogh, David Hockney, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Cézanne, Andy Warhol, etc. This is a kind of reflection on how the art of the last centuries could have been if the male body had not been discriminated against.
While the female nude is generally regarded as a staple on the finest of museum walls, the male nude has managed to maintain an air of illicitness up until the present day, continuing to trouble people in different ways.
This phenomenon's root cause is because art history was a “white straight men only” club for a long time. Its creators have used mechanisms of suppression of rights and marginalization of minorities. And the culture of the dominant patriarchal and heterosexual discourses is still influential.
I would like to see our culture represent naked men as frequently as we do naked women to remove the shock value of the nude male. And this is my goal as an artist. I use the male nude to express erotic feelings in the same way that the female nude has been used. I am trying to explore the slippage of masculinity and redefine what it means to be male.
I integrate a male body's sensual beauty with paintings of world-famous artists like Claude Monet, Van Gogh, David Hockney, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Cézanne, Andy Warhol, etc. This is a kind of reflection on how the art of the last centuries could have been if the male body had not been discriminated against.
Limited Edition Prints • 21 artworks
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Limited editions of my artworks.
Metamorphoses of Lenin • 12 artworks
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For many Ukrainians who, like me, shares Western values, Lenin is a dictator and murderer who initiated[...]
For many Ukrainians who, like me, shares Western values, Lenin is a dictator and murderer who initiated an occupation of my country in 1917-1921. From that time until 1991, Ukraine wasn't free.
Even now, like numerous soviet-era propagandistic portraits of Lenin, the ghost of a monster country called the USSR is still here. Lenin's successor from the Kremlin tries to destroy an independent Ukraine and pull it into Moscow's deadly hug.
In my art project, I try to overcome the traumatic historical experience of my country by transforming the sinister shards of USSR into something funny and not scary. I try to show that we can defeat even the strongest evil. But even in a case of a win, we must be alert to prevent the enemy from rising again.
Even now, like numerous soviet-era propagandistic portraits of Lenin, the ghost of a monster country called the USSR is still here. Lenin's successor from the Kremlin tries to destroy an independent Ukraine and pull it into Moscow's deadly hug.
In my art project, I try to overcome the traumatic historical experience of my country by transforming the sinister shards of USSR into something funny and not scary. I try to show that we can defeat even the strongest evil. But even in a case of a win, we must be alert to prevent the enemy from rising again.
Sculptures • 14 artworks
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Work with found objects occupy an important place in my art. It’s something in between the meditative[...]
Work with found objects occupy an important place in my art. It’s something in between the meditative practice and the research. With all the fun of my manipulations with found objects, they acquires new meanings, an antonymous combination of play and seriousness, prompting the viewer to go beyond the accepted paradigm. Images from the deep subconscious give rise to different sences that inspire to thinking and reflection.
Figurative • 3 artworks
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I create works that are designed to please the eye and heat the imagination. For me, more important[...]
I create works that are designed to please the eye and heat the imagination. For me, more important is the variety of thoughts arising from the viewer in the process of contemplation than the clarity and certainty of these thoughts.
Abstract • 4 artworks
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In my abstract works I use a visual language of shape, color and line to create a something unsurpassed[...]
In my abstract works I use a visual language of shape, color and line to create a something unsurpassed which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ... Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery, it can address concepts that are intangible and theoretical, existing in the realms of mind and spirit, rather than in outer reality. You can see a misty landscape, you can see the sky glows with the last rays of the sun, you can see the waves on the sea, now rising... now falling, but it’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Sold artworks • 328 artworks
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Biography
Oleksandr Balbyshev is a contemporary Ukrainian artist. The most important themes in Balbyshev’s art are male sexuality and sensuality. Artist wants the viewer to see the realm of ideas in faces and bodies, not only a realistic image of a human. He tries to combine in his paintings realities, as visions of worlds within worlds. They show us an image of ourselves and also hint that there is more to us than we know.
Oleksandr Balbyshev is famous for transforming classical Soviet-era portraits of Lenin into highly decorative and chaotic works of art. Artist finds original portraits and sculptures of Lenin made in the Soviet era on flea markets and on announcements on the Internet. He paints on top of old portraits of Lenin fragments from famous paintings or drip paint on them, cut the canvases into pieces and glue them in a chaotic manner, let them paint them for children, he paints the sculptures in funny colors and glues them with various objects. As a result of this artistic gesture, the artist erases the propaganda and ideological meanings of the image, at the same time endowing it with decorative qualities. However, with all the fun of this manipulation, the artwork acquires new meanings, an antinomical combination of play and seriousness, prompting the viewer to go beyond the accepted paradigm.
Oleksandr Balbyshev was born in 1985 in Ukraine. His paintings are in private collections in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Croatia, South Africa, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Mexico, and Japan.
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Nationality:
UKRAINE
(Ukrainian Contemporary Artists)
- Date of birth : 1985
- Artistic domains: Painting, Sculpture, Printmaking, Collages, Textile Art
Influences
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Education
2006 - 2012
The Bachelor of Architecture
Dnipro,
Ukraine
Artist value certified
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Achievements
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Activity on Artmajeur
Last modification date : Mar 29, 2023
(Member since 2019)
Image views: 865,875
Artworks by Oleksandr Balbyshev added to favorite collections: 760
Latest News
All the latest news from contemporary artist Oleksandr Balbyshev
Added Aug 23, 2019
Pink on the Face
Added Aug 15, 2019
Painting " cold water" in progress
Reviews and comments
Oleksandr, em sua intrigante obra, observo o primor na escolha das cores, bem saturadas, elegantemente distribuídas e sobretudo os caminhos, as trilhas, o ritmo que os círculos empregam. Não desejo me estender muito, mas sinto-me faltoso em não comentar sobre a correlação entre as cores. Abraços e esperança de paz!
BEAUTIFUL AND COLORFULL TOO! LOVE YOUR STYLE.
FABULOUS COLORS!
Anger.....Passion.......Red always !