Pop/off/art gallery is honored to present works from the «Gloomy Paintings» series by a renowned Saint-Petersburg-based artist Vladimir Shinkarev. The exhibition will include over twenty paintings from the latest decade, most of them exhibited for the first time. Shinkarev’s previous show in Moscow took place more than 10 years ago, also at pop/off/art gallery (2005, «Motion Pictures», together with K. Batynkov). Shinkarev is returning to work with pop/off/art upon closing down his exclusive contract with Bruno Bishofberger’s gallery, the dealer who introduced the likes of Warhol and Lichtenstein to the European art scene.

Started in the 90s the «Gloomy paintings» features deserted urban landscapes of Saint-Petersburg and its surroundings, all defined by a muted, monotonous palette. The choice of colouring is not accidental. According to the artist gloomy shades is the ways of resisting the state of contemporary, «associated with bold synthetic colours of advertising, that have stained intricate harmonious colours of the real world — so it appears appropriate to rather depict reality as reserved». Gloominess is also revealed on the level of a subject. Much in the style of The Mitki art group, Shinkarev once used to be a part of, with an irony and ability to see poetic in the everyday, the artist focuses on the city’s outskirts, charming and beautiful in their modesty. Working with the traditions of Leningrad avant-garde school and «Arefiev's circle» painting, Shinkarev manages to create something that can rightfully be regarded as a visual essence of Saint-Petersburg.

Vladimir Shinkarev was born in 1954 in Leningrad. From 1974 to 1977 he took courses at Vera Mukhina Higher School of Art and Design and Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1975 he started taking part in unofficial apartment exhibitions. In 1985 he founded The Mitki art group, which he left in 2008. He is also widely known as a writer and an author of a number of books, including the cult «Maxim and Fyodor» (1978-80). In 2008 he was awarded with Joseph Brodsky prize. His works are included in collections of State Tretyakov Gallery, Hermitage Museum, State Russian Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK). The artist lives and works in Saint-Petersburg.