mark shilenkov
visual ARTIST
ABOUT
Mark Shilenkov is a visual artist who explores the relationship between temporary human existence and eternity
His primary medium is painting. The relationship between temporary human existence and eternity is a consistent theme throughout Shilenkov's works. To express and depict eternity, he explores its different aspects while extracting them from various layers of world culture.
Shilenkov’s works are part of the museum collection of the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, as well as being privately owned by collectors in Russia. Moreover, he has worked on murals, including those for the Orthodox Holy Trinity Church in Mirny, Sakha Republic, as well as on public and private interiors in Moscow, Russia. Most recently, his works were exhibited in art galleries, such as Winzavod, K35 Gallery, Kultproekt, among others.
In 2004, Shilenkov graduated from the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in Moscow with a degree in painting. In 2021, he completed a course in Contemporary Art at OnStudy University.
Shilenkov’s works are part of the museum collection of the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, as well as being privately owned by collectors in Russia. Moreover, he has worked on murals, including those for the Orthodox Holy Trinity Church in Mirny, Sakha Republic, as well as on public and private interiors in Moscow, Russia. Most recently, his works were exhibited in art galleries, such as Winzavod, K35 Gallery, Kultproekt, among others.
In 2004, Shilenkov graduated from the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in Moscow with a degree in painting. In 2021, he completed a course in Contemporary Art at OnStudy University.
In the studio with the paintings from the series Light and Darkness
PROJECT
LIFE AND DEATH. MEMENTO MORI
Curated by Maria Hiltunen
The Life and Death. Memento Mori project
(2022-2023) explores the idea of reality as a fragile, unstable, ever-changing structure. The artist conceives of the world as a form of consciousness or being, marked by the perpetual duality of life and death.
This perception is rooted in both Western and Eastern philosophical traditions, which often reveal profound affinities: from Plato's theory of Eidos and Hegel's concept of becoming to the notions of Maya and Samsara in Hindu and Buddhist thought. According to the artist, the world is an illusion; it exists and does not exist simultaneously, fluctuating between formation and disintegration. Existence becomes non-existence like a vanishing dream.
The idea is expressed through the project's visual and spatial structure, with each piece representing a stage in the transition from a distinct image to a blurred form, and from tangible presence to eventual disappearance.
(2022-2023) explores the idea of reality as a fragile, unstable, ever-changing structure. The artist conceives of the world as a form of consciousness or being, marked by the perpetual duality of life and death.
This perception is rooted in both Western and Eastern philosophical traditions, which often reveal profound affinities: from Plato's theory of Eidos and Hegel's concept of becoming to the notions of Maya and Samsara in Hindu and Buddhist thought. According to the artist, the world is an illusion; it exists and does not exist simultaneously, fluctuating between formation and disintegration. Existence becomes non-existence like a vanishing dream.
The idea is expressed through the project's visual and spatial structure, with each piece representing a stage in the transition from a distinct image to a blurred form, and from tangible presence to eventual disappearance.
POST MORTEM. An Old Woman.
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas. Oval, 69x55 cm, 2022
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas. Oval, 69x55 cm, 2022
The semantic and visual center of the project is The Observer, which symbolizes eternal consciousness through which all things exist.
An Observer.
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas. 30x30 cm, 2022
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas. 30x30 cm, 2022
The introductory part of the project, the Post Mortem series, refers to Victorian post-mortem photography. Frozen between life and death, these images serve as a metaphor for the borderline nature of human existence, its instantaneity, fragility, and attempt to capture the irreversible.
Post Mortem. A girl.
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, gold. 31x31 cm, 2022
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, gold. 31x31 cm, 2022
Post Mortem. A boy with a toy horse.
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas. 25x25 cm, 2022
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas. 25x25 cm, 2022
Post Mortem. A man with a head on a platter. From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori.
Oil on canvas. 42x35 cm, 2022
Oil on canvas. 42x35 cm, 2022
The Symposium (Feast)
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, paste texture. 270x180 cm, 2023
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, paste texture. 270x180 cm, 2023
The Feast painting, resembling a half-erased fresco, becomes a visual allegory of an ecstatic moment that inevitably leads to satiation, degradation, and decay.
In the final series of works, The Body as Food, fragments of The Feast painting are combined with abstract textures and texts, quotations from Hamlet, The Book of Ecclesiastes, and The Maitri Upanishad. These texts are sites of intersection where Eastern and Western thought converge: the body is perishable, desires arise and fade, and human existence is temporary.
Body as Food. A Body.
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, paste texture, 95x95 cm. 2023
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, paste texture, 95x95 cm. 2023
Body as Food. A Head.
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, paste texture, 95x95 cm. 2023
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, paste texture, 95x95 cm. 2023
Body as Food. Vanitas.
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, paste texture, 95x95 cm. 2023
From the series Life and Death. Memento Mori
Oil on canvas, paste texture, 95x95 cm. 2023
Life and Death. Memento Mori presents an open system in which the viewer's presence becomes part of the statement. The understanding of time, physicality, and loss unfolds through fragmentary images, pauses, and transitions between works. The project offers viewers a visually and sensually immersive experience of confronting what is usually displaced: the unpredictability of disappearance and the reality of physical vulnerability.
PROJECT
LIGHT AND DARKNESS
Curated by Maria Hiltunen
By structuring the series as a dramatic sequence, the artist shows the movement of light that destroys darkness in their opposition. This narrative resonates with archetypal structures represented in myths, theatre, painting, and literature.
The Light and Darkness series is a symbolic reflection on the metaphysical duality of being. The artist perceives and portrays the universe as an eternal battle between good and evil, and light and darkness. This duality is shown through visual images that refer to religious, philosophical, and artistic traditions.
The piece of the series The Face of Light introduces the image of light as an active and conscious force. Light, with its dynamic energy, penetrates the canvas's depths and structures the space.
Composition №1. The Face of Light.
From the series Light and Darkness
Oil on canvas, gold. 125x120 cm, 2021
From the series Light and Darkness
Oil on canvas, gold. 125x120 cm, 2021
In the piece The Face of Darkness, the image of evil is individualized and built around three characters. One of them is associated with a demonic antagonist. The other two, the Furies or Erinyes, whose female portraits the viewers can see, are echoes of classical mythology and works by Dante and Goethe.
Composition №2. The Faces of Darkness.
From the series Light and Darkness
Oil on canvas. 120x120 cm, 2021
From the series Light and Darkness
Oil on canvas. 120x120 cm, 2021
Their images are ambivalent. They not only bring destruction, but also evoke desire.
The athletic bodies depicted in The Shadows lose their specificity as their physicality becomes porous and blurred.
Composition №3 . The Shadows.
From the series Light and Darkness
Oil on canvas. 120x120 cm, 2021
From the series Light and Darkness
Oil on canvas. 120x120 cm, 2021
The Monster, the final work of the series, represents the ultimate point of destruction as conceived by the artist. It is not just a depiction of chaos, but also a reference to the images of hell and its guardian, the monstrous watchdog Cerberus.
Composition №4 . The Monster.
From the series Light and Darkness
Oil on canvas. 120x120 cm, 2021
From the series Light and Darkness
Oil on canvas. 120x120 cm, 2021
In the project, the artist interprets light through directed movement created by rhythmic brushstrokes resembling pulses or quanta of energy. Darkness, on the contrary, he conveys by a multi-layered, heavy, and loose texture that reveals its ugliness. The Light and Darkness series invites the viewer to explore the binary of light and darkness and their visual equivalents, light and shadow, as the main tools of artistic expression.
