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Oleksandr Balbyshev
Ukraine
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302 pieces
Artist highlights
- Social Media Star
- Experienced Artist
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Other artworks by Oleksandr Balbyshev
Artwork details
- Medium : Oil on Canvas
- Other details : Artwork on supported wooden frame. Ready to hang. Framing on request.
- Dimensions : 37.4x27.6in
About this artwork
This contemporary artwork is made of Lenin's found soviet-era oil portrait.
For many Ukrainians who, like me, share Western values, Lenin is a dictator and murderer who initiated an occupation of my country in 1917-1921. From that time until 1991, Ukraine wasn't free.
Even now, like numerous old soviet-era propagandistic images of Lenin, the ghost of a monster country called the USSR is still here. Lenin's successor from the Kremlin tries to destroy… an independent Ukraine and pull it into Moscow's deadly hug.
In my art project, I try to overcome my country's traumatic historical experience by transforming the USSR's sinister shards into something funny and not scary. I try to show that we can defeat even the strongest evil. But even in a case of a win, we must be alert to prevent the enemy from rising again.
For many Ukrainians who, like me, share Western values, Lenin is a dictator and murderer who initiated an occupation of my country in 1917-1921. From that time until 1991, Ukraine wasn't free.
Even now, like numerous old soviet-era propagandistic images of Lenin, the ghost of a monster country called the USSR is still here. Lenin's successor from the Kremlin tries to destroy… an independent Ukraine and pull it into Moscow's deadly hug.
In my art project, I try to overcome my country's traumatic historical experience by transforming the USSR's sinister shards into something funny and not scary. I try to show that we can defeat even the strongest evil. But even in a case of a win, we must be alert to prevent the enemy from rising again.
Oleksandr Balbyshev
Ukraine
Credentials
- Social Media Star
- Experienced Artist
« My art is selfish. Picturing something on my canvas, I take it into my soul. I draw only what I consider very beautiful, what I want to possess. »
Oleksandr Balbyshev is a Ukrainian contemporary artist based in Germany. Combining oil painting with Soviet-era found objects, his practice explores queer identity, masculinity, vulnerability, historical memory, and ideological symbols.
His paintings focus on the male body, using vivid color, sensuality, and art-historical references to challenge discomfort around male nudity. He presents masculinity through tenderness, desire, uncertainty, and emotional openness rather than dominance.
A second direction transforms Soviet portraits, sculptures, and propaganda objects. Through overpainting, fragmentation, and playful interventions, Balbyshev strips them of ideological authority and creates new visual and emotional meanings.
Both directions connect personal experience with questions of identity, memory, power, and cultural transformation. His works are held in private collections across Europe, North America, Australia, and beyond.
His paintings focus on the male body, using vivid color, sensuality, and art-historical references to challenge discomfort around male nudity. He presents masculinity through tenderness, desire, uncertainty, and emotional openness rather than dominance.
A second direction transforms Soviet portraits, sculptures, and propaganda objects. Through overpainting, fragmentation, and playful interventions, Balbyshev strips them of ideological authority and creates new visual and emotional meanings.
Both directions connect personal experience with questions of identity, memory, power, and cultural transformation. His works are held in private collections across Europe, North America, Australia, and beyond.
Oleksandr Balbyshev
Split Lenin
$2,540
