online catalogue

28.03 - 05.05 2024
Opening
Thursday March 28th from 5 - 8 pm

No Man’s Art Gallery is honoured to present ANTSONG, Maxim Santalov’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. Extending to both gallery spaces, ANTSONG shows the artist’s large body of intricately composed geometrical drawings that form a narrative of a rhythmic trail, moving through the planetary mesocosms of Santalov’s worlds. He reconstructs childlike reveries of the past, searching for their elements and atmospheres in the future. 

“My work is my own insectarium, filled with vanishing species and unidentifiable creatures,” Santalov poses. Through his signature technique, he highlights the juxtaposition of the modern and the rural, the adult and the childlike, the harsh and the soft - while creating a need for motion, for a search and a pathway, amongst wandering insects, the dripping waters, falling stars and the explosive fires. 

Prickling past the surface of his cultural memory, Santalov builds pheromonal bridges ‒ just as those blossomed by his ant-characters ‒ to connect various themes emerging within the landscape of Russian art history to his unique integration of realism and surrealism. Touching the array of values and principles embedded in movements such as Constructivism and Suprematism, as well as his own Ävangraphics. Santalov masters the rigidity of minimal shapes and their carved-out dimensionality along with a contrasting intensity and vibrancy of his colour palette. In his self-taught practice, the artist moves across from concealment directly into mapping, marking, and reeking storytelling. “At first glance, it may seem as if my drawings are devoid of air, but look more closely. The work is marked with scratches and ripples which impose shape and texture. Space binds together the elements of composition,” Santalov explains. 

As symbols of symbiotic relationships, the techniques used by the artist are left within their own capsules of existence, communicating with each other and the viewer as the trails left behind. The yellow acrylic under the layers of wax crayon and pencil markings remain visible, tying the echoing niches of Santalov’s drawing environment to his methodology. As such, the artist simultaneously enchants with an arthropodic cosmos and leaves space for narratives of our own fabrication, memory, and emotion.

The exhibition extends to both gallery locations: Willem de Zwijgerlaan 327 and Bos en Lommerweg 88 and runs until May 5th 2024. For more information or inquiries please contact info@nomansart.com

Photos Tommy Smits

Aixia Li, Berend Strik, Bertrand Peyrot, Caucasso Lee Jun, Hu Xing Yi, Jeroen Luijt, Julie Nymann, Kamil Franko, Mattijn Franssen, Max & Charlotte, Maxim Santalov, Merijn Kavelaars, Mette Colberg, Nini Sum, Simone Engelen, Zhang Jifeng, CUSS Group, David Tsoka, Isabel Mertz, Lehlogonolo Mashaba, Lindokuhle Sobhekwa, Mia Chaplin, Nicolène van der Walt, Roxy Kawitzky

Max & Charlotte, Bertrand Peyrot, Typhaine Augusto, Sophie van der Perre, Aixia Li, Nini Sum, Hu Xing Yi, Fenk Zhang, Daniel van der Noon, Maxim Santalov, Mia Mai Graabaek, Julie Nymann, Stine Deja, Kyra Sacks, Roman Asmus, Bhairavi Parikh, Merijn Kavelaars and Caucasso Lee Jun

Press:
Pop-up art that will blow your mind, Global Times Shanghai
No Man’s An Island, That’s Shanghai
Elle, China

Bertrand Peyrot, Max & Charlotte, Merijn Kavelaars, Roman Asmus, Olivier Schimmel, Typhaine Augusto, Joeri van Beek, Sarah Wijzenbeek, Sophie van der Perre, Meise Fabricius, Julie Nymann, Tanja Kirst, Bhairavi Parikh, Daniel van der Noon, Camilla Gabriele, Mia Mai Graabaek, Cil Laurens, Per Skovgaard, Hersh Acharya, Troels Andersen