Timur Novikov was born in Leningrad in 1958. Between 1980-1982 he worked at the Russian Museum in Leningrad. In 1982 Novikov became a leader of the New Artists Group focusing on folk art traditions and the artistic theories of Mikhail Larionov. In 1983 he founded an avant-garde music group called the New Composers and began working in cooperation with Pop-mechanics, an avant-garde group directed by Sergei Kurekhin. The artist worked actively in show design and the artistic images he created for youth in the popular movie Assa were awarded the «Nika» prize. Touring Europe and the United States with his art projects, Novikov continued to study, learning from such great masters as Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, Daniel Buren, and Hans Haake. In the early 1990s he founded the New Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg aimed at preserving classical traditions in contemporary art. In 1993 he opened the New Academy Museum in St. Petersburg, which hosts exhibitions that unite the most recent artistic notions with elements of the classical tradition.
Novikov regularly participates in various artistic projects in Moscow and St. Petersburg and his work is exhibited at the most renowned European and American museums. He lives in St. Petersburg.