Nikita Sukhov: The Lure of Aesthetic Deception
Artist Spotlight: Nikita Sukhov’s paintings seduce with vibrant hues—only to reveal a hidden unease beneath the surface.
At first, Nikita Sukhov’s paintings feel like candy—irresistible, bright, full of life. But then, the aftertaste kicks in. The figures, entangled in surreal metanarratives, don’t just exist in another world—they challenge ours.
His work is a bait-and-switch, drawing you into a lush, intoxicating vision only to reveal the unsettling truths lurking beneath. What happens when beauty is no longer a refuge, but a trap?
Nikita Sukhov: To look is easy. To truly see is another matter
Nikita Sukhov (*1994, Kazan) creates paintings that exist in a realm between the subconscious and the socio-political, where archetypal imagery collides with art historical references, metanarratives, and existential dilemmas.
Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Daniel Richter, as well as in China and Switzerland, Sukhov employs a primitivist approach that transforms human figures into recurring patterns within vibrant, immersive compositions.
His use of bold, acidic hues and dynamic, layered brushwork constructs a world where reality folds into itself, revealing hidden tensions beneath seemingly inviting surfaces.
His paintings, often infused with a visual trickery akin to the deceptive beauty of poisonous flora or neon-lit urban landscapes, engage viewers in a game of attraction and repulsion.
At the past Parallel Vienna 2024, Sukhov presented GEN-6, a series that encapsulates his evolving practice.
Set against walls painted in a signature pink hue, his new works carried an almost hallucinatory quality, a mixture of saccharine brightness and unsettling imagery.
Through these compositions, Sukhov invites the viewer into a world where the aesthetics of allure serve as a Trojan horse for deeper existential concerns.
The candy-colored exteriors of his paintings may initially suggest playfulness, yet they ultimately expose an internal disquiet—an anxiety of modern existence filtered through dreamlike distortions.
His influences span from German Neo-Expressionism to Socialist Realism, fused into compositions that maintain an underlying dialogue with Impressionist sensibilities.
Yet, rather than celebrating bourgeois leisure, as the Impressionists once did, Sukhov dissects these scenes, turning cafés into sites of excavation, and landscapes into realms of looming conflict.
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