Russian Patterns . 2026
Traditional Russian Khokhloma patterns undergo a dark metamorphosis in this painting: skulls and chains against a blood-red background become an image of a Russia destroyed by Putinism. An ornament of barbed wire stretches menacingly toward the figure of the artist himself. A bloodthirsty regime, hurling grave accusations of extremism, displays his photograph on Russian television — on the country’s main evening news programme, Vremya, broadcast on July 31, 2026. The segment begins at approximately 8:10.
Watch the July 31, 2026 edition of “Vremya”
On the artist’s pencil-fingers, we see what the artist himself considers one of the reasons for these fierce attacks by Russian propaganda: the protagonist of his activist YouTube channel — Putin portrayed as a dancing Buratino puppet from the satirical video “Koo-Koo, It’s Me!”