Gek Solanik probes the boundaries of contemporary figurative painting. Shaped by two distinct artistic worlds — the classical St. Petersburg Academic School on one side, and German conceptual design (UdK Berlin, Kunsthochschule Weißensee) on the other — he has developed an aesthetic referred to in modern art criticism as "constructed realism" or "Sottorealism."
Solanik does not document reality — he stages it. His canvases are hermetic mise-en-scènes in which space becomes a theatrical backdrop. In dialogue with the work of Aris Kalaizis and Marianna Gartner, he strips his subjects of linear time. His figures remain in a "play dead" state — caught in a moment suspended between sleep, levitation, and deep psychological withdrawal. This effect is further reinforced by his use of compositional schemes drawn from 15th-century European engravings: pyramidal structures and the statuesque quality of his figures are transposed into the vacuum of an abstract, vibrating space.
A significant part of Solanik’s artistic narrative is devoted to the reinterpretation of archetypal themes. In the cycle Daughters of Judith (2024−2025), he desacralizes the scene of biblical violence, transforming the act of heroism into a quiet, timeless ritual. The severed head becomes part of the still life — placed on equal footing with lemons or flowers. It is precisely here that an effect of the uncanny emerges, in the Freudian sense: the familiar tilts, without one being able to say exactly why.
Against the static world of human figures, Solanik poses a "kinetic counterpoint" — the living natural world. In his Fish Series, fish motifs (Ichthys) become the sole carriers of movement in a frozen world. In Solanik’s work, fish are markers of an oneiric, dream-like space — like thoughts or dreams, they drift freely through the dense matter of the canvas, indifferent to the laws of physics.
Technically, Gek Solanik works with a synthesis of painting and mixed media. His background in textile design has translated into a distinctive method: he integrates threads directly into the structure of the canvas. Very much in the spirit of David Hockney’s investigations into the tension between surface and depth, Solanik employs the thread as a physical object that deliberately disrupts the painted illusion. This lends his works a particular tactility and tension — transforming the painting from a "window onto the world" into a complex, composite object.
Solanik does not document reality — he stages it. His canvases are hermetic mise-en-scènes in which space becomes a theatrical backdrop. In dialogue with the work of Aris Kalaizis and Marianna Gartner, he strips his subjects of linear time. His figures remain in a "play dead" state — caught in a moment suspended between sleep, levitation, and deep psychological withdrawal. This effect is further reinforced by his use of compositional schemes drawn from 15th-century European engravings: pyramidal structures and the statuesque quality of his figures are transposed into the vacuum of an abstract, vibrating space.
A significant part of Solanik’s artistic narrative is devoted to the reinterpretation of archetypal themes. In the cycle Daughters of Judith (2024−2025), he desacralizes the scene of biblical violence, transforming the act of heroism into a quiet, timeless ritual. The severed head becomes part of the still life — placed on equal footing with lemons or flowers. It is precisely here that an effect of the uncanny emerges, in the Freudian sense: the familiar tilts, without one being able to say exactly why.
Against the static world of human figures, Solanik poses a "kinetic counterpoint" — the living natural world. In his Fish Series, fish motifs (Ichthys) become the sole carriers of movement in a frozen world. In Solanik’s work, fish are markers of an oneiric, dream-like space — like thoughts or dreams, they drift freely through the dense matter of the canvas, indifferent to the laws of physics.
Technically, Gek Solanik works with a synthesis of painting and mixed media. His background in textile design has translated into a distinctive method: he integrates threads directly into the structure of the canvas. Very much in the spirit of David Hockney’s investigations into the tension between surface and depth, Solanik employs the thread as a physical object that deliberately disrupts the painted illusion. This lends his works a particular tactility and tension — transforming the painting from a "window onto the world" into a complex, composite object.
Gek Solanik probes the boundaries of contemporary figurative painting. Shaped by two distinct artistic worlds — the classical St. Petersburg Academic School on one side, and German conceptual design (UdK Berlin, Kunsthochschule Weißensee) on the other — he has developed an aesthetic referred to in modern art criticism as "constructed realism" or "Sottorealism."
Solanik does not document reality — he stages it. His canvases are hermetic mise-en-scènes in which space becomes a theatrical backdrop. In dialogue with the work of Aris Kalaizis and Marianna Gartner, he strips his subjects of linear time. His figures remain in a "play dead" state — caught in a moment suspended between sleep, levitation, and deep psychological withdrawal. This effect is further reinforced by his use of compositional schemes drawn from 15th-century European engravings: pyramidal structures and the statuesque quality of his figures are transposed into the vacuum of an abstract, vibrating space.
A significant part of Solanik’s artistic narrative is devoted to the reinterpretation of archetypal themes. In the cycle Daughters of Judith (2024−2025), he desacralizes the scene of biblical violence, transforming the act of heroism into a quiet, timeless ritual. The severed head becomes part of the still life — placed on equal footing with lemons or flowers. It is precisely here that an effect of the uncanny emerges, in the Freudian sense: the familiar tilts, without one being able to say exactly why.
Against the static world of human figures, Solanik poses a "kinetic counterpoint" — the living natural world. In his Fish Series, fish motifs (Ichthys) become the sole carriers of movement in a frozen world. In Solanik’s work, fish are markers of an oneiric, dream-like space — like thoughts or dreams, they drift freely through the dense matter of the canvas, indifferent to the laws of physics.
Technically, Gek Solanik works with a synthesis of painting and mixed media. His background in textile design has translated into a distinctive method: he integrates threads directly into the structure of the canvas. Very much in the spirit of David Hockney’s investigations into the tension between surface and depth, Solanik employs the thread as a physical object that deliberately disrupts the painted illusion. This lends his works a particular tactility and tension — transforming the painting from a "window onto the world" into a complex, composite object.
Solanik does not document reality — he stages it. His canvases are hermetic mise-en-scènes in which space becomes a theatrical backdrop. In dialogue with the work of Aris Kalaizis and Marianna Gartner, he strips his subjects of linear time. His figures remain in a "play dead" state — caught in a moment suspended between sleep, levitation, and deep psychological withdrawal. This effect is further reinforced by his use of compositional schemes drawn from 15th-century European engravings: pyramidal structures and the statuesque quality of his figures are transposed into the vacuum of an abstract, vibrating space.
A significant part of Solanik’s artistic narrative is devoted to the reinterpretation of archetypal themes. In the cycle Daughters of Judith (2024−2025), he desacralizes the scene of biblical violence, transforming the act of heroism into a quiet, timeless ritual. The severed head becomes part of the still life — placed on equal footing with lemons or flowers. It is precisely here that an effect of the uncanny emerges, in the Freudian sense: the familiar tilts, without one being able to say exactly why.
Against the static world of human figures, Solanik poses a "kinetic counterpoint" — the living natural world. In his Fish Series, fish motifs (Ichthys) become the sole carriers of movement in a frozen world. In Solanik’s work, fish are markers of an oneiric, dream-like space — like thoughts or dreams, they drift freely through the dense matter of the canvas, indifferent to the laws of physics.
Technically, Gek Solanik works with a synthesis of painting and mixed media. His background in textile design has translated into a distinctive method: he integrates threads directly into the structure of the canvas. Very much in the spirit of David Hockney’s investigations into the tension between surface and depth, Solanik employs the thread as a physical object that deliberately disrupts the painted illusion. This lends his works a particular tactility and tension — transforming the painting from a "window onto the world" into a complex, composite object.