Ilya Artamonov

painter, teaches at the Kazan school of visual arts,
Tatarstan, Russia

Ilya Artamonov, born in 1960 in Novosibirsk, graduated from the academy of Art and Design in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1984 and has exhibited his paintings on a regular basis since 1982. He has taught composition and painting at the Kazan academy of art since 1988. His works show a concern with texture where he often cuts or carves into the wooden surface of his paintings. His general style are abstract compositions based on common objects such as a suitcase or window and door elements as in the 1992 painting "The Station". Other works are more figurative where space is flattened such as in his 1994 painting, "Evening Conversation".

Often his paintings look more like etchings, because paint has been rubbed into and over the lines cut into the surface of the wood.

He wrote: "The Bahá´í Faith gives me a chance to put my soul and feelings into a mood for solving professional problems."