Сотников Иван

Ivan Sotnikov is an iconic Petersburg artist, representative of neo-expressionism, one of the founders of "New Artists" group, co-author of Timur Novikov on ''Zero Object''.

Born in 1961 in Leningrad in a family of historians. He studied at the evening art school number 1 on the Fontanka. He worked as a clerk in a printing house, janitor, stoker, watchman of the church in Vyritsa. In 1996, he became a priest. He was a member of the Association of Experimental Fine Arts, the group ''New Artists'', and later exhibited with the group ''Mit’ki''.

According to the artist’s own admission, the main influence on him was exerted by the painting of the ''Arefev's circle'' and the exhibition of Mikhail Larionov in State Russian Museum in 1980. From the very beginning, his style was free, sketchy, with time becoming more and more relaxed and simplified. Constantly trying new ways of working on the flatness, Sotnikov followed the principles of the Russian avant-garde. His painting has always been included in the circle of themes and artistic searches of the Leningrad underground. Sotnikov is diverse and recognizable, but his conceptual series (''Spruces'', ''Computer Games'', ''Cars'') received the most recognition.

He died in 2015 in St. Petersburg.