In the work of Igor Kozlovsky and Marina Sharapova, time is not merely linear; it's an element to manipulate, to fold into strikingly original compositions. In each canvas we sense a narrative is implied, but we always fall short of piecing it together - it's like waking up from a dream. And just as dreams synthesize all manner of seemingly disparate material into cohesive experiences, so Igor and Marina blend the modern and traditional, the representational and the abstract and indeed their own divergent personalities into each finished painting.

Working as a husband-and-wife team, the Russian-born duo collaborates on each canvas, Marina contributing her impressive skills as a figurative artist in the Old-Master tradition, Igor lending his refined sense of color, shape, texture and affinity for abstract images. As a result, the paintings are influenced by, and recall, a diverse spectrum of artists and eras: famous avant-garde figures like Chagall, Malevich, and Kandinsky as well as fifteenth-century Russian religious painters like Andrei Rublev. Partly, this array of forbearers reflects the artists's education: trained in rigorous Russian academies to appreciate both ancient and modern techniques, they learned to combine past and present with fluidity.

The figures in Igor and Marina's paintings look at once contemporary and historical - they might be modern people garbed in costumes of the past; they might be past people plunged into the present. The constant repetition of human forms, of faces, of clothing, seems to call into question the notion of rigid identity: paintings such as Twelve Apples, Isabella, Behind the Looking Glass, and Vanishing Point place multiple versions of the same person onto a single plane, defying a conventional experience of self. It's as if the frames of a film have been layered on top of one another to very surreal effect - a state that Igor and Marina, with their finely tuned sense of all that is enigmatic, seductive, and dreamlike in life, always wholeheartedly embrace.

IGOR KOZLOVSKY born 1956, Slobodskoi, Kirov Region RUSSIA
MARINA SHARAPOVA born 1960, Leningrad (Saint-Petersburg) RUSSIA

EDUCATION

1985 MFA, Mukhina Academy of Art and Design, St.
Petersburg, RUSSIA (both)
1976 BFA, College of Fine Art, Kirov, RUSSIA (Igor)

AWARDS

2006 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York, NY U.S.A.

TWO-PERSON SHOWS partial list

2007 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco & St. Helena, CA, U.S.A.
2006 Campton/Caldwell Snyder Gallery, New York, NY U.S.A.
2002-07 Thomas Masters (Eastwick) Gallery, Chicago, IL U.S.A.
1996 Centre Culturelle de St. Malo, FRANCE
1996 Federation of Interior Architects, St. Petersburg, RUSSIA / Members since 1991
1995 Consulate of France, St. Petersburg, RUSSIA

GROUP SHOWS partial list

2005-07 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco & St. Helena, CA, U.S.A.
2005-07 Campton Gallery, New York, NY U.S.A.
2002-07 Thomas Masters (Eastwick) Gallery, Chicago, IL U.S.A.
2006 Art Chicago, Chicago, IL U.S.A.
2005-06 Nuart Gallery, Santa Fe, NM U.S.A.
2004-06 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA U.S.A.
2003-05 Lisa Kurts Gallery, Memphis, TN, U.S.A.
2004 NIU Art Museum, Chicago, Il U.S.A.
1996-06 Artemise Gallery, Dinard, FRANCE
1996 Ton-Gallery, Bonn, GERMANY
1995-97 Master Class, International Art Show, St. Petersburg, RUSSIA
1991 Art Expert Gallery, Helsinki, FINLAND

CORPORATE COLLECTIONS partial list

2005 Governor of Tokyo, JAPAN
2003 Sara Lee Corporation, New York, NY, U.S.A.
2002 Ravinia Festival, Highland Park, IL, U.S.A.
2002 George Larson Design, New York City, U.S.A.
2002 Potash Corporation, U.S.A. - CANADA
1999 First Chicago Bank, Evanston, IL, U.S.A.
1996 Consulate of France, St. Petersburg, RUSSIA
1996 Prefecture of St. Malo, Britain, FRANCE
1995 Bristol Myers Squibb Company, U.S.A. - RUSSIA