Ruben Monakhov

Artist Statement. When I was a teenager, I thought that the XXI century — is an unachievable distant future. And now this future already came. Many things that seemed as science fiction before, now — the prosaic reality. But did it make people more happy? Modern man is so fed up of visual information, that he lost the ability to wonder. Craft of visual simulation has reached such a degree of perfection that absolutely everything become possible. But did it make people began to feel more acutely? A XXI century resident is racing through his life with escape velocity. The visual aspect of the world rushes in front of him like a continuous tape, and his eyes have time to grab only the most glaring and outstanding, most new and unusual. But even this he does not manage to feel in a full range. Because new information is no longer waiting — it's climbing into his eyes and pushed by the next, like the passengers in the Tokyo subway. My painting — is a story about the beauty of light and color in the stopped moment of time. No conceptual nonsense or ultra-supernova "ideas". Simply painting. Oil on canvas. In the same way as it was done by many generations of artists. In the same way, but still a little differently. Subjectively. Because painting — is a very personal experience.