Igor and Ekaterina Pestov

A retrospective exhibition of works by Igor and Ekaterina Pestov offers the viewers to get acquainted with the creative oeuvre of well-known Russian contemporary artists. Born in Yekaterinburg, Igor and Ekaterina received a professional education in art first at the I. D. Shadr Sverdlovsk Art School, and later at I. E. Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. 

The artists have been taking part in exhibitions since 2003. Their work was displayed at the Russian Museum’s exhibitions “Dinner is Served. The Russian Museum Culinary Companion” in 2013 and “Russia. Realism. 21st Century” in 2016. Igor Pestov was awarded the Kandinsky Contemporary Art Prize (Best Project nomination) in 2008. 

For the first time ever, Igor and Ekaterina present their work as a duo, a creative partnership. “Our artistic method is ‘personal history.’ We believe that the experience we get, our childhood memories, education, things we see or learn — all events of our life are initial motives that are reflected in consistent patterns in the present and future,” the artists comment on their work.

The Pestovs belong to the type of artists who are socially concerned, rebellious, and daring. They focus on the most burning issues of today’s world: consumption, spiritual void, aggression, and human vulnerability. Igor and Ekaterina Pestov have developed their own signature style of painting which the artists themselves refer to as “neo-baroque.” Vivid and dramatic, hyperbolic and disturbing, the universe of Pestov’s images is rendered with exceptional skill and craftsmanship.

The exhibition consists of around 40 paintings, including “Civilization” (2006), “Biomaterial” (2010), “Hard Waste” (2011), “Meal” (2017), and some of the most recent works by the Pestov duo, which have never been on display before.