Kirill Basalaev was born in 1988 in Tomsk, Siberia. He studied at The Tomsk State University (faculty of Art and Culture) until 2009 and then continued his education in Moscow at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Art Theory faculty) in 2014-2015.

The body of works includes paintings and sculptures with plaster as the main medium. The works of Kirill Basalaev explore interrelation of human and urban environment. The city is perceived as a living structure, where shards, cracks, bricks constitute evidence of its “vitality” and “mortality”. Becoming a witness to these living processes, Basalaev not only registers them on the surface of a canvas, but as the plaster fixes itself on the canvas, the artist also “remembers” himself at this particular point. During many years of his artistic practice, Basalaev reached the conclusion that memory is inseparable from the object that represents it. A specific memory originated in a certain place is the basis of all subsequent memories of the place. Thus, a new memory about oneself becomes only a memory of memories of the place.

In his early works, Basalaev focused on physical buildings and city walls, which he reproduced on canvas. Using building materials such as cement, plaster, enamel, he reproduced exact texture of the observed walls in order to reflect the fragility of urban space, its man-made nature and mortality. 

The artist’s practice continues in a series of deliberately bright colored works. Layers of tinted plaster, mixed with paint, allowed Basalaev to move away from the physical space of the urban environment and its direct connection with a person and focus on the sensory experience of place. As a result, the theme of the ever-changing city becomes an experience of trauma of place where shards, cracks and scratches are only a metaphor of humane presence in a city.

In 2021, during total lockdown and sudden “stillness” in cramped spaces, Basalaev is forced to re-construct from his memory the image of a place in his paintings while working in isolation, in order to experience the place on his own. 

The year 2022 was marked as a relocation year for Basalaev. The experience gained from moving to various countries the artist describes as follows: "Any move changes the sense of myself, the place defines me as I define the place. By taking imprint of a crack in one wall, let’s say, in a small town in Tuscany, I could have taken imprints of all the cracks because of their overall similarities to each other but I continue to look for new ones in Berlin, Tbilisi or London. The difference being my personal presence has become the most important part in my work."

Currently lives and works in London, the United Kingdom.

Exhibitions

2022 — “On Top of the Crystal Mountain“, Art Design Human Studio, London
2022 — “Monsters under the bad“, Max Art Foundation, St.Petersburg 
2022 — “Splashed and smashed“, 30/7 gallery, Moscow 
2021 — “There is no blood in bone“, personal show, Art & Brut Gallery, Moscow
2021 — “The water seemed smooth“, ADH Studio, Moscow
2021 — Cosmoscow Art Fair, Art & Brut Gallery, Moscow
2021 — Blazar Art Fair, Art & Brut Gallery, Moscow
2021 — “HIdden Places“, Max Art Foundation Moscow
2020 — “Bridge“, group show, art brut gallery, Moscow
2020 — blazar art fair, Art Design Human Studio, Moscow
2020 — “A wave of dreams“, group show, Triumph Gallery, Moscow
2020 — “State of emergency“, group show, Triumph Gallery, Moscow
2020 — “Nothing Box” group show, The Modern Culture Cluster “Basmanniy Dvor”, Moscow
2018 — “I am not ok” Immersive installation, Moscow
2018 — “Home/Street” , Gallery 35, Moscow
2017 — “All the important things are stored on the cloud”, solo show, Elektrozavod Gallery, Moscow
2016 — “A city in personal time”, Fragment Gallery, Moscow
2016 — “Artmossphere: Invisible wall”, Manege, Red Square, Moscow
2016 — “Between us. The territory of memories”, The Moscow State Museum of Contemporary Art
2016 — “Only non-official language”, The Center for Contemporary Art “Winzavod”, Moscow
2016 — “The mistakes of space”, Ground Peschannaya, Moscow
2016 — “Resistance to shrink”, solo show, Total Art, Moscow
2015 — “Hooray, Sculpture!”, The Center for Contemporary Art “Winzavod”, Moscow
2015 — “Stay seated, I will open it myself”, Gallery Elektrozavod, Moscow
2015 — “Region 70. Young artists”, XXII Regional Biennale, Tomsk, Siberia
2015 — “We are building a new city”, The State Center for Contemporary Art, Tomsk, Siberia
2014 — “Uncommon techniques in photo printing”, FOTOLOFT Gallery, Moscow
2013 — “Region 70. Young artists”, XX Regional Biennale, Tomsk, Siberia
2012 — Solo show, Unconquered Gallery, Novosibirsk 
2011 — “Artmuseum Project”, The Forum of Contemporary Art, Tomsk Museum of Fine Art, Tomsk, Siberia