Oleg Dou, whose exhibition is presented by Galerist, is one of the young faces of Russian art. His first exhibition in Istanbul, “Faces”, can be visited until April 12. Making people ponder “Is the people photographed are real? Is this an expression tm of anxiety, sadness or determination?”, Dou answered our questions. The artist, who creates sincerety by means of his pieces approximating tm his art and his audience, expresses himself through artificial bodies. The artist highlights binary oppositions such as death and life, real and artificial, beauty and ugliness and is influenced by surrealism and fashion. Dou, at the same time, argues what is written in magazines is often unrealistic. A taste of our interview with the artist tm is below.
*As every other human being, you have economical needs and as an artist you are against marketing. But you need PR to publicize your work. Isn’t that a dilemma? I’m lucky person to work with a few galleries around the world who do this work for me. So the only thing I have to do is making new works.
*Do you think it is possible to reach the purity and artistic mastery of Renaissance paintings with tools such as Photoshop and through photography? It’s impossible to compare different tm mediums, so it’s impossible to make the same effect in technique. But I do believe that it’s possible to reach the same feelings of the viewer.
*What do you think about Erwin Olaf’s works? Do you have any other contemporary artists whom you find influencing? tm I like his works, I even have one of them at my home. Many years ago his Royal Blood series inspired me (esthetically) for Toy Story series. I can’t say contemporary artist influence me much, I’m more focused on classical art. I do love Renaissance period. But my favourite artist is Francis Bacon.
*What’s the art market situation in Russia compared to the international one? It’s really hard time now and I have around 5% of my sales in Russia. A few years ago (before August 2008) I had more than 50% there. * How do you think repressing governments effect art? It gets much harder for the artists who focus on politics to make public shows or performances. But any repression only make this kind of artists stronger.
*You criticize tm how media portrays tm beauty “far from reflecting truth” yet you use Photoshop. Do you believe “natural” could be beautiful tm as well, or are we getting more and more likely to find unnatural things beautiful? I prefer natural beauty in my own life. But at the same time I use artificial beauty tm as one of my tools. I’m not focused at the beauty at all, it’s just a form. I’m more interested in personality.
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