Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art presents an exhibition by Vlad Loktev whose creative journey spans fashion editorials and avant-garde art photography
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Water as the universal maternal element triggering creativity
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Light-based prints illustrating the physical theory of the Big Bang
- An erotically charged struggle between light and dark matter
The case of Vlad Loktev is quite extraordinary: one of the most sought-after Russian fashion photographers who used to shoot glossy editorials throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he eventually turned into an experimenting avant-garde art photographer whose images now grace the leading museum and gallery spaces.
His artworks showcased at Erarta can be grouped into figurative and abstract categories. The former betray the grasping eye of a fashion photographer, which totally makes sense, as this type of photography primarily deals with the human form. The female shapes transformed by rippling water could have been the product of some editorial shoot, ultimately jettisoned by the magazine fashion editor for being too unconventional and alien in the consumerist world.
Offering endless opportunities for experiment, chance has always been central to avant-garde art and acts as one of its markers. At the same time, chance occurrences have been the source of creative inspiration throughout the entire cultural history. For his experiments, Loktev chooses water, the universal and powerful maternal element in whose patterns the viewers may see whatever they fancy.
Works from the Birth of a Star series also featured in this show resulted, according to the artist, from his experiments with light and texture. Once again employing the element of chance, the photographer creates light-based prints illustrating the physical theory of the Big Bang. Whereas Balance and Freedom is based around the confrontation of water and rock, Birth of a Star captures an erotically charged struggle between light and dark matter.
Within the random and chaotic metamorphoses of water and light, the philosophically inclined photographer manages to see the beauty and infinite variety of reality.
One of the most renowned and acclaimed Moscow-based photographers, Vlad Loktev has been shaping, transforming, and redefining the visual aesthetics of Russian fashion photography for nearly three decades.
At the dawn of his career in the 1980s, Vlad collaborated with the Slava Zaitsev Fashion House. His celebrity portraits were published in the most influential Soviet magazines, including Ogoniok and Sovietskiye Zhenshchiny. Visiting the US after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Loktev was greatly influenced by the legacy of the most iconic American photographers. He went on to work for the major Red Stars modelling agency, created the pilot cover for Cosmopolitan Russia and shot a large fashion editorial for the magazine’s first official issue.
Vlad Loktev’s track record boasts commissions from Vogue, Glamour, Tatler, GQ, Maxim, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and The Hollywood Reporter, among others, large-scale outdoor advertising campaigns and special projects for World Class and Natalia Vodianova’s Naked Heart Foundation.
His works have been exhibited in Moscow’s leading museums, including the Multimedia Art Museum (MAMM), Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA), and Alexey Shchusev Museum of Architecture. In 2019, Loktev surprised the art community by presenting a series of abstract art photographs, garnering particular interest from interior designers and architects.
