Description: Merry dance of the skeletons in Morte Natura is related to the medieval tradition of Dance Macabre (Dance of Death), an allegory of the futility of human existence.This isn’t the first collaboration of artists Irina Vasilyeva and Ivan Sotnikov. Those authors, famous individually, regularly create collective works of art. The Pushmi-pullyu sculpture (1994), MORTE NATURE project (2006), SSUCH (2008) and Marine Alphabet (2009) animated movies, floating sculptures in Kolomyagi and standing sculptures in Krasnoyarsk – that’s not an exhaustive list of their collective works.
Ivan Sotnikov Ivan Sotnikov, one of the co-founders of the Novie khudozhniki (New Artists) group (1982), is a participant of numerous exhibitions, including joint exhibitions with the Mitki group; co-organizer (with Aleksandr Florensky) of the Society of Art and Painting Lovers (2004). Ivan Sotnikov created his own unique style in art, cinema, animation, music and journalism, combining his passion to study semiotic systems and his love of traditional folk art.
Irina Vasilyeva Irina Vasilyeva born in Leningrad. Graduated from the Secondary Art School of the Academy of Arts and entered the Free Academy, Boris Yukhananov’s film and video direction school.
Exhibited with the Mitki (since 1987), the Painting and Drawing Society (since 2005) and the Vasilki art groups. Lives and works in Kronstadt (St. Petersburg).
Since 1997 Irina Vasilyeva has exhibited regularly with the Mitki art group, has been fully engaged with the work of the Painting and Drawing Society (OLZHIR, created by Alexander Florensky and Ivan Sotnikov), has worked with the New Artists (the long-term creative union of Vasilyeva and Sotnikov) and the Necrorealists (Andrey Mertvy). Vasilyeva is famous not just as a painter (continues the artistic traditions of the 1930s Leningrad school)and an illustrator but also as an author of objects, designer books and animation.
