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Vladimir Shinkarev (1954)
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Vladimir Shinkarev was born in 1954 in St. Petersburg, Russia. During his geology studies at St. Petersburg State University – from which he graduated in 1977 – he attended art courses at Repin Institute of Paintings, Sculpture and Architectureand at Mukhina Art College. In 1975, he began participating in apartment exhibitions of non-conformist artists. During the Soviet era, he wrote books while working shifts as a boiler room operator or on geological expeditions to Siberia. His bookMitki (written between 1984 and 1989) led to an identically called movement of a group of St. Petersburg friends and artists. The Mitki group's main members were Vladimir Shinkarev, Alexander Florensky and Dmitri Shagin. The book gave the group a cohesive philosophy, their assimilated features were manifested not only in their art but also in their everyday life, behavior, attitude, speech and appearance.
Shinkarev's first novel, Maxim and Fyodor, and the initial chapters of Mitkicould not be published in the period before Perestroika (1987). Typewritten copies were secretly circulated as underground self-publications or Samizdatand read by thousands. They thus became highly influential prior to their official publication in 1990. Maxim and Fyodorhas subsequently been translated into several European languages.
In 1984, Shinkarev had his first one-man exhibition at the Library of the USSR Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, which was followed by numerous exhibitions in Europe and the USA. His work is represented in museums and private collections in Russia, Europe and the USA.
Shinkarev lives and works in St. Petersburg with his wife and children.
Galerie Bruno Bischofberger started representing the artist worldwide in 2007.
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