V Safonkinpaintings

Fantastic Realism · Prague

Viktor
Safonkin

Paintings inspired by the book Teidan

Dreams in which a person dissolves into a world of things —
and is left alone with his own shadow.

b. 1967, Saransk/based in Prague since 1996
View works8
SPORES oil on canvas 01 / 08

01 — Works

Selected Works

Details are shown here. Click to see the full painting.

All 8 works →

02 — Artist

“Modern society is turning into a distorting mirror in which Man disappears, is pushed out of space… turning into a biomass capable only of consuming”

Viktor Safonkin was born on 22 August 1967 in Saransk, Mordovia. He received a technical education and is a self-taught painter. Since 1996 he has lived and worked in Prague.

His paintings are about the megalopolis, the underground and the crowd in which a person remains cosmically alone. His figures stand at the centre of the canvas, yet they do not belong to themselves: they are already half objects, half mechanisms, half someone else's dreams. Hence a red dress against a dismantled car, sundresses against a blaze, a smile beneath an iron mask.

His technique is oil: dense brushwork, a muted ground and a single patch of colour torn out of it. Safonkin unites the tradition of Russian figurative painting with the aesthetics of cyberpunk and steampunk, which has brought his work into the collections of museums of fantastic realism across Europe.

  • 1967born in Saransk, Mordovia
  • 1990begins painting, self-taught
  • 1992first solo exhibition, St Petersburg
  • 1996lives and works in Prague
  • 2000Salvador Dalí Alliance award
  • 2025“Interfaces of Reality”, Saransk

On His Art

“Modern society is turning into a distorting mirror in which Man disappears and is pushed out of space; he vanishes from art, religion and sociology, turning into a biomass capable only of consuming. Egocentrism — and yet the total loneliness of the individual in today's world. Megacities, the seething energy of the underground, even a rich social life do not solve the problem of loneliness. We can communicate through gadgets and find online communities for every interest, topic and opportunity, feeding any intellectual, spiritual or even the most deviant pursuits. And yet modern man is cosmically lonely, unfulfilled and full of complexes. His ideas of the world and of relationships are increasingly virtual — worlds where he is a hero living hundreds of lives. In these worlds one can win without pain or loss, one can love without bearing any responsibility, because that too is virtual. Reality is inconvenient for us: it depresses and irritates us with its lack of sterility and its demands, its naturalness and its finitude.”
— Viktor Safonkin

03 — Exhibitions

Chronology

Events marked with a red dot open on click

  1. 2025MoscowSolo exhibition, Capital Gallery of Artists
  2. 2025Saransk“Interfaces of Reality”, S. D. Erzia Museum of Fine Arts · solo
  3. 2021MurciaTwo Art Gallery, Spain
  4. 2020St Petersburg“Mirrors and Through the Looking-Glass”, Museum of Art of St Petersburg, 20th–21st Centuries
  5. 2019MálagaRussian Museum, Málaga · group
  6. 2017HagenKarl Ernst Osthaus Museum (Osthaus Museum Hagen) · group
  7. 2016SaranskS. D. Erzia Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts (works in the museum collection)
  8. 2016SaranskNational Museum of Mordovia · group
  9. 2016MálagaRussian Museum, Málaga · group
  10. 2016SaranskPop-up exhibition at the “Points of Contact” symposium
  11. 2015St Petersburg“Russian Realism XXI”, State Russian Museum · group
  12. 2014New YorkScope NY · art fair
  13. 2014Los AngelesLA Art Show · art fair
  14. 2014CopenhagenArt Copenhagen · art fair
  15. 2013St PetersburgState Russian Museum · group
  16. 2013MiamiContext Art Miami · art fair
  17. 2013BerlinBerliner Liste · art fair
  18. 2013Knokke-HeistArtnocturne · art fair
  19. 2012KyivBohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts · solo
  20. 2012WormsMuseum Heylshof · solo
  21. 2011St PetersburgState Russian Museum · solo (works in the museum collection)
  22. 2010GenevaMimesis Gallery · solo
  23. 2010GenevaMandarin Oriental Hotel · solo
  24. 2010Karlovy VaryPlaza Hotel · solo
  25. 2010Los Angeles“Metamorphosis”, CoproGallery · group
  26. 2010Los Angeles“Temple of Visions” · group
  27. 2010FichtachIPAX 2010 · group
  28. 1994MoscowCentral House of Arts, “Golden Brush” competition
  29. 1993SaranskCentre of Fine Arts
  30. 1992Nizhny NovgorodCentral City Exhibition Hall
  31. 1992St PetersburgExhibition Hall on Nevsky Prospekt · first solo show

Awards

  • 1996Prize of the Jan Masaryk Academy of Arts
  • 1996Franz Kafka Medal, Prague
  • 1999Title of Professor of Arts, Accademia Greci-Marino, Italy
  • 2000Salvador Dalí Alliance award for achievement in painting
  • 2004Honorary Art Counsellor for the Czech Republic

04 — Collections

Museums and Collections

Works in the collections of: State Russian Museum; S. D. Erzia Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts.

Private collections: Guillermo del Toro (Mexico), Joseph Kiblitsky (Germany), Rardi van Soest (Netherlands). Album covers: Killing Joke, October File, Viva Death.

05 — Book

Teidan

A science-fiction novel by Vladimir Yakovlev about the future. After a catastrophe that has changed the world, its hero Teidan finds himself in an insane reality woven from other people's nightmares, and must fight not only their fears but his own.

Buy the book TeidanLitres ↗

All the paintings shown above were created for the book Teidan.

Visit counter