Arsen Baterbiev

Arsen Baterbiev was born in 1961 in Sukhumi, Abkhazia, and graduated from the Sukhumi Art College. Since 1985, the artist has been living in Leningrad/St. Petersburg and working in various media, including sculpture, painting, and drawing.

In his artistic practice, Baterbiev explores the nude: by using similar hues for the background and the naked body, he seems to be modelling the figure on the pictorial plane, as if attempting to create a three-dimensional sculpture on the two-dimensional surface. The artist is intrigued by looking at his models from different angles, presenting them here seated on a chair, there reclining in a bathtub, or even with their backs turned to the viewer. The women pictured by Arsen Baterbiev seem to be shaped out of terracotta, with deep dark shadows outlining their arms, legs, breasts and bellies, and highlights used very sparingly, as if the artist is afraid to destroy some delicate balance. Baterbiev often adds the figure of a draughtsman to an imaginary scene, thus becoming a character in his own experiment.