“Great Art is Living the Present Moment; Freedom Lies Within Each and Everyone.”
Hello and welcome to my website. It is great to have you here! Below I would like to share a few words about my work and myself.
My journeyas an artist initially began working in an art studio in Moscow. There I had the opportunity to gain my first experiences working with photography, computer graphics and video, which led me to understanding the depths and possibilities and also to forming my own perspective on media art. Ever since my art has been evolving in the search of my own style and way of expression. At this point in time my pieces have been successfully exhibited on a number of platforms and occasions in Russia and Germany. Today my works are in private collections across Russia and Europe. Occasionally, I also organize collaborative art shows and exhibitions partnering with other talented artists.
My work has always been driven by the desire to find ways to show the beauty of the simple things and moments surrounding us in everyday life. A big part of my inspiration is drawn from literature and music, as well as my travels, which I also always aim to document.
Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, George Braque, Herb Ritts, Henri Bresson and Man Ray are just to name a few of incredibly talented people whose work influenced my style and techniques. Another of my passions is cinematography, in particular Bernardo Bertolucci, Guy Ritchie, Quentin Tarantino, Tarsem Singh and Emir Kusturica movies, as well as the colorful world of Japanese movies, which also influence my art greatly.
I watch, take in, appreciate and admire, but never copy.
Artwork is always a challenge; it is a way to implement one’s ideas, but it also puts the artists’ talent, courage and creativity to the test. The picturesque of the mind and individual way of seeing things, one’s curiosity for the world and energy that results from all these impressions – these are the main ingredients for the birth and manifestation of ideas. This is an exciting and inimitable process, one that inspires a profound dialogue with both the outside world as well as one’s inner self.
In Michael Smirnov`s works you can trace very clear, strong features, but at the same time, they are refined and built on a clear mechanic order, which the artist refers to. From fancy graphic pictures of Michael fantasy worlds, where the turquoise-blue and blood-red shades tend to find their place, as if to make sure that they come back to their roots, on a variety of substrates background, are watching us. To transmit his fantasies the artists uses different materials such as drawing paper, canvas, and even circular aluminum, which the latest works were made of. Most of all I was shocked by the signs that he revived in his paintings icons like Nefertiti.
In the past I have come across this way in a series of “Ancient Civilizations”. And this approach – to give the queen of Egypt, the beloved wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten not divine, but rather an alien character, very emotionally brought me to the perception of sensitivity, reflected in the work of this young artist. In the end, there is nothing invented in Art, as it was not invented before. And we are as mere mortals can only re-interpret everything that has ever been created in the universe: every image, object, or idea that can be a stimulus to creativity, love and destruction. I think Michael has chosen the path of exploration and discovery through such unusual worlds to delve few, but among these few, fortunately, there is someone to be recognized and to provide material for analysis.”
“He is talented and looking for something intriguing, something that hasn`t yet been done, his own novel ways. There is a whole style of this kind of drawings. And he is pretty good!!! I like the colors and the complexity of his works. If the works were purely abstract (without adopting portraits, vases and other definable objects), that would be genius!!! He is talented and has everything ahead of him!”
