I am a Russian artist named Costa Gorelov, based in Moscow. I was born on June 5, 1993 in Moscow. I received my formal education from the Moscow Institute of Television and Radio Broadcasting in Film Directing (Cinema). I work as an artist, director, TV production designer, and fashion stylist. In my work I explore people’s feelings and their psychological state, often depicting them through the interaction of the figure with space, items, and fashion. The last attribute is paramount to my self-expression. It is also a symbol linking epochs, times, and traditions.

I grew up in the tradition of the North German Renaissance. German music, literature, painting, culture, and language have greatly influenced me, as well as the formation of my style. The basic principles I use when creating my paintings are those of Baroque, Renaissance, and interior design. Architecture plays a primary role because it is based on stone and the golden ratio. I strive to incorporate elements of Gothic and Baroque architecture into the everyday life of my characters through bags and accessories that carry the DNA of the architectural heritage. I want to show that in spite of the change of trends and eras, the fundamental things are unshakable and unchanging.

I predominantly use the wave technique of drawing, with transparent oil to achieve the balance between transparency and color brightness. Shadows and halftones of internal lines produce smoothness of color transitions. I then dilute them with varnish and leave only the colored surface. I use the superposition of transparent colors on top of each other, adding new shades in each new layer to give them character and achieve depth. I use transparent paint because I want to be absolutely honest with my viewer; I want no borders and barriers between the viewer and the canvas. It’s one of the most important things to me.

I am interested in tearing off the character's mask opposite the mirror when a person is left alone by himself and his thoughts, yearnings, and feelings. I use sexuality and nudity as a tool to show vulnerability, insecurity, and at the same time passion and thirst for life, which are eternally inseparable. With the help of chamber scenes (in which the characters are left alone with their inner emotions) I want to talk about different degrees of accepting oneself and overcoming human complexes, pain, fears, which, on the one hand, make you feel vulnerable and helpless, and on the other, hand harden you and make you stronger.

The character can be best described as sparkling, unshakable, unchanging, honest, sexy, vulnerable, inaccessible, baroque, pure, lurking, conjuring, initiating a secret, gentle vampire or Chinatown drag-queen, a pathetic and funny native of the Middle Ages, trying to hide behind the modern creations of the luxury segment and protected by them from the evil eye or his own memories. He is Mary Magdalene or Saint Sebastian, suffering and giving peace. An earthly angel, attracting the viewers with his perfect and sexy look, nevertheless being untouchable for those that keep his wings in a Birkin Bag. This is what I have in mind when creating the image of my character.

Could you tell us a little more about your background and how you began creating art?

I have been always flying in the clouds, gathering images, inventing them and living in them. From my early childhood, art inspired me and made my heart beat faster. I remember the first time I saw a painting of "Dance" by Henri Matisse. I was four years old and my mother took me to a museum. Then I thought I saw perfection, I even touched it. After the museum, we went to the Bolshoi Theater to see Swan Lake. For me, at that moment that performance was a continuation of a painting by Matisse. That was probably the first time I really came into contact with art. That's how I started to make my own little sketches. As a child I could not draw at all, I could only do something like a horse. But whenever I had the feeling of an image, even though I was not able to draw, I would start dancing with that image. A bit later I became interested in cinema and thought I would become a director. When I studied at the institute, I got a job on television, but I began to work as a stylist and did part-time drawings. I really started diving into art after I tore a tendon in my arm. It was a long recovery from the surgery and I had to rebuild my arm somehow and get physiotherapy. My physical therapy became drawing and painting. Of course painting, sculpture, music, literature, cinema are my main interests in life, on a par with spaghetti in tomato sauce, and I was inspired by fashion, interior design, humor, food, everything in the world, but through the prism of art and the play of meanings.

What does your art aim to say to its viewers?

I would like my paintings to speak to the viewer that vulnerability is strength, that eroticism is humor, that farce is innocence, that fanaticism is doubt, and that euphoria is a leap from melancholy to Hermes cash register. That human nature contains everything, and that you never know where inspiration comes from. I would really like my paintings to tell the viewer - I understand you.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your daily routine when working?

I always start a new job with my eyes practically closed. In the beginning I have a feeling of a certain atmosphere, of something intangible, and I start sketching it. I take a canvas and I draw a person on a canvas, usually using myself as a model. I think that in this way I have more opportunities to be more honest and as open as possible with the viewer, I'm not afraid to experiment on myself. I can't offend myself with it. Then I start to build some kind of environment, an interior. I catch a sense of what the character might be feeling and create the appropriate environment in the picture. Music that coincides with my mood helps me a lot. It allows me to keep the dynamics in the work, and to disconnect from everything as much as possible. I paint in transparent oil, I dilute oil paints with varnish in ceramic plates and I spread the color on the canvas in transparent layers. I am very attracted to the glow that is created by the combination of oil and varnish, and I try to intensify it. To give the painting the glow of gems. And yes - I often dance or make strange movements while painting, but this way I feel more relaxed and connected to the painting.

What is the essential element in your art?

The main in my work is the perception of the phenomena of life through the relationship with the environment, interiors, fashion and objects that help in solving the emotional structure of the images. The gravitation to the harmonious ideal and simultaneous denial of this ideal in an acute sense of individualism. I try to capture intermediate borderline states that combine opposing, contradictory, inconsistent, irrational feelings as just one of billions of particles of something whole. In the case of my paintings, this whole is the character's agitatedly personal relationship to the world.

In your opinion, what role does the artist have in society?

In my opinion, the main role of the artist in society is to give youthfulness to the soul.

Website: https://www.costagorelov.com/