Vasilii Shulzhenko was born in Moscow in 1949. He studied at the Moscow Secondary Art School and the Polygraphic Institute. Shulzhenko’s art is linked with the traditions of photo-realism and fantastic realism. The artist’s compositions display the internal tension of a photograph. The distortions of perspective form a special space in his paintings that unites a concrete and recognizable reality with the symbolic understanding of life in Soviet society and the Russian provinces. The heroes of these paintings are taken from Soviet cinema and literature, but their canonical images are depicted in absurd and pointless situations.
The artist regularly participates in exhibits of the alternative movement in Europe and the United States. His most recent solo show took place in Chicago in 1995 at the Maya Polsky Gallery.
