TRICKSTER

The exhibition features large-scale works from recent years, as well as early paintings and analog collages from the 2000s.

Igor Skaletsky’s creative career can be roughly divided into two periods. During the first ten years after graduating from the Surikov Institute, the artist developed methods of analog and digital collage, creating intriguing puzzle-like dioramas. These works are featured in one section of the exhibition. In these pieces, various artistic elements are boldly combined into absurd, illogical compositions that “tear apart the proper order of spatial connections.”

Since 2019, Skaletsky has moved away from post-digital practice and turned to painting, which has become large-scale since 2021. He populates his grotesque, richly colored canvases with paradoxical anthropomorphic phantasms that stir the imagination.

Skaletsky’s viscous surrealism is a layering of personal memories, landscapes floating in the depths of memory, and echoes of literary and cinematic sources. These elements spontaneously project onto the canvas, embracing the energy of chance — a factor of great importance to the artist, which he strives to preserve.
Skaletsky works spontaneously and intuitively, often following the material and the paint: “an unplanned brushstroke leads to other worlds.” On one hand, this approach aligns him with the surrealist tradition of automatic writing, aimed at capturing drifting images from the subconscious. At the same time, the mystical or even spiritual aspect of this process plays a significant role for Skaletsky. The artist rarely explains the meaning of his works, believing they should speak for themselves. What matters most to him is the emotional imprint, so that the coloristic solutions are perceived at first impact. The narrative content, however, is left open to interpretation.

“If someone needs a key, if a painting takes them out of their comfort zone and understanding — then I’ve done everything right.”

A catalog has been published for the exhibition, featuring an introductory essay by Sergey Khachaturov — art critic, theorist, curator, and art historian. The catalog includes illustrations of selected works by the artist, including some pieces not shown in the exhibition.

I believe Igor Skaletsky is one of the most consistent interventionist artists today in the serene and complacent world of establishment art. He behaves like a trickster—teasing, provoking, and combining the incompatible.

Sergey Khachaturov
from the introductory essay in the exhibition catalog