Gritty pics of Russian life that have been all around the world

Russian Artist Olga Chernysheva is always working, she’s exhibiting all over the place and doesn’t know when her next rest will be.

She creates photography, paintings, and video. She is one of the most popular Russian artists in the West right now.

Her works hold court in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Museum, Library of MOMA, and a several other museums and private collections.

According to the analytical project InArt, she ranks fourth in the Top 100 most acclaimed living Russian artists, after Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Erik Bulatov, and AES+F.

"This might sound a little pathetic and even brazen when you ask one 'what are you working on?' and they reply 'on my own.' But for an artist it's fair. You really work on your character while creating," Olga says.

She graduated from the animation department of the Moscow Cinema Academy (VGIK). Her paintings depict daily life.

"I will never work out how Rembrandt created his light, but I try to figure out how he built each composition and portrayed life’s warm heaviness," Olga adds.

Olga's works were first exhibited in Moscow’s Furmanny Lane art squat and in 1993 she received an invitation from Amsterdam's Rijksakademie. This was a big deal.

In the Netherlands Olga was given a studio where she trained as a sculptor. But she struggled to find inspiration and returned to Russia.

In 2015 the artist participated in a group exhibition as part of the main project of the Venice Biennale. She was asked to bring her series of short video artworks but she realised spectators are fed up with visual art.

"I decided to create drawings. I like talking to the audience through mental whispering," she says. As a result, Olga still gets emails from impressed art lovers.

Olga Chernysheva: Autoradio is showing at New York's Foxy Production until Dec. 9, 2018. 

Read more: 10 young artists forging the future of Russian contemporary art