Sweep of a broom in dust
Oil on canvas, 100×100 cm
Sweep of a broom in dust,
on Siena’s ancient earth —
all traces vanish…
Maxim Ksuta
russian artist, contemporary art, sculpture, installation, photography
Tag: Painting
September 8, 2025
August 22, 2025
“Yellow Sea”
“Yellow Sea”, Oil on canvas, 100 × 80 cm
The canvas unfolds as a space where light itself turns into living matter. Sweeping, wave-like strokes create a shimmering surface that evokes the sea filled with sunlight. Here, yellow and gold are not decorative, but the very substance of light stretched into infinity.
Against this luminous field, three black lines — boats — become strikingly clear. They appear both fragile and resolute, like shadows drifting into the distance. These boats transform the abstract expanse into a seascape: the sea gains dimension, and the light acquires a human scale.
The painting balances between abstraction and figuration. There is no conventional horizon, yet there is the feeling of a journey. The boats seem suspended in the golden swell — in boundlessness, where movement and stillness are one.
Yellow Sea resonates as a meditation on human presence within the elements: not confrontation, not fusion, but a subtle equilibrium. The sea and the light are no backdrop, but a space where the boat becomes a sign of the path unfolding through radiance.
August 22, 2025
“Wave in Black”
Oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm, summa 140 x x180 cm
Wave in Black
Before us lies a work that appears at once monochrome and infinitely multicolored. Black paint — gas soot — has been laid flat on the canvas, without the slightest hint of relief. And yet, it is precisely within this flatness that optical depth emerges: lines and gestures of the brush, layered upon one another, form a fabric where light plays as if on water or silk.
The scale of the piece — 140 × 180 cm — makes it almost a wall, a membrane through which the viewer encounters the phenomenon of light itself. As the angle of vision shifts, the surface comes alive: the threads reflect light differently, transforming black into a space of continuous oscillations.
This is painting without color in the usual sense, yet full of a whole spectrum of states. There is no subject, no image to “hold on to”; instead, the viewer is confronted with the pure energy of perception. The work breathes like a wave — at times contracting into darkness, at times opening into a brilliance reminiscent of metal, glass, or the shimmer of a nocturnal sea.
This black optics is both an experiment and a meditation. It takes painting beyond the conventional role of carrying color and form, turning it into a field where vision travels, splits, lingers — and it is precisely this tension between the stillness of the surface and its shifting radiance that generates the true experience.
Ultimately, the work feels like a meditation on the nature of light and darkness: how black becomes luminous if one looks long enough; how simplicity proves more complex than illusion; how a surface devoid of depth suddenly reveals an abyss.
April 25, 2025
Quantum Project
The presented artwork is part of the series “Quantum Project,” which combines the artist’s meticulous technique and conceptual depth. The painting, created entirely with a No. 2 brush, draws inspiration from the intricate beauty of Roman micro-mosaics. Each brushstroke becomes a fragment of a greater whole, forming a cohesive image with a tactile, mosaic-like texture.
The artist has meticulously developed a custom palette, based on the principles of index color. This approach allows the artwork to achieve a harmonious balance of hues and a systematic structure, reminiscent of digital pixelation yet maintaining the organic essence of traditional painting. The deliberate selection and application of color transform each element into a symbol of precision, suggesting the interconnectivity of the micro and macro.
“Quantum Painting,” as a technique, bridges the worlds of science and art. The title “Quantum Project” encapsulates the conceptual underpinning of this series. Each painting reflects the complexity of quantum processes, where order and chaos coexist, and the smallest particles form the fabric of the universe. This innovative approach encourages viewers to delve into the relationship between structure, randomness, and perception.
The series invites contemplation of time and space, offering a meditative experience akin to observing the infinite detail in nature or the cosmos. It is a celebration of the intricate and the monumental, achieved through the smallest gestures of the brush, echoing the timeless traditions of ancient mosaic craftsmanship while pushing the boundaries of contemporary art.
December 20, 2024
Quantum Project
The presented artwork is part of the series “Quantum Project,” which combines the artist’s meticulous technique and conceptual depth. The painting, created entirely with a No. 2 brush, draws inspiration from the intricate beauty of Roman micro-mosaics. Each brushstroke becomes a fragment of a greater whole, forming a cohesive image with a tactile, mosaic-like texture.
The artist has meticulously developed a custom palette, based on the principles of index color. This approach allows the artwork to achieve a harmonious balance of hues and a systematic structure, reminiscent of digital pixelation yet maintaining the organic essence of traditional painting. The deliberate selection and application of color transform each element into a symbol of precision, suggesting the interconnectivity of the micro and macro.
“Quantum Painting,” as a technique, bridges the worlds of science and art. The title “Quantum Project” encapsulates the conceptual underpinning of this series. Each painting reflects the complexity of quantum processes, where order and chaos coexist, and the smallest particles form the fabric of the universe. This innovative approach encourages viewers to delve into the relationship between structure, randomness, and perception.
The series invites contemplation of time and space, offering a meditative experience akin to observing the infinite detail in nature or the cosmos. It is a celebration of the intricate and the monumental, achieved through the smallest gestures of the brush, echoing the timeless traditions of ancient mosaic craftsmanship while pushing the boundaries of contemporary art.
April 2, 2024
New group exhibition – “Summer plans”, Kovcheg gallery
Oil, hardboard, 2019
March 4, 2024
New solo exhibition – “I Can’t Remember”- KultProekt gallery CUBE, Moscow
Inspiration can be found in the most unexpected places. For me, it came in the form of the colorful compositions left on walls and fences after anonymous painters, employed by the municipal services, paint over graffiti deemed undesirable by the city authorities.
However, instead of completely erasing the traces of street art, they always leave behind strange stains, sometimes resembling landscapes. This phenomenon made me reflect on the nature of memory, its instability, and abstractness.
In my works, I tried to embody this idea visually, creating abstract images that evoke a sense of familiarity, yet leave room for interpretation. Each painting is a combination of blurred shapes and colors that may remind one of something familiar, yet not fully discernible.
Through working with texture and layers of paint, I aimed to convey the complexity of the process of remembering. After all, the paintings are not an accurate representation of a specific moment or place but rather an abstract reflection of the state of consciousness in the process of trying to recall something lost. The viewer is given complete freedom for individual interpretation.
The video presented at the exhibition is a slideshow of my photographs uploaded to the now-banned social network Instagram over the past 12 years. Each frame in this photo archive becomes a link in time and flashes by so quickly that it is impossible to see all the details. This effect is similar to how our memory sometimes changes and inaccurately reproduces old moments.
May 9, 2017
New group exhibition -“Structures Fractals” CultProekt Gallery 04052017
http://kultproekt.ru/proekti/66102052017123728963/
The Kultproekt gallery begins a series of new exhibitions – “Environment contexts”.
September 2, 2014
Sufi whirling
Sufi whirling series 2014
120×80 cm, oil on canvas
Sufi whirling (or Sufi spinning) is a form of Sama or physically active meditation which originated among Sufis, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a customary dance performed within the Sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes (also called semazens) aim to reach the source of all perfection, or kemal. This is sought through abandoning one’s nafs, egos or personal desires, by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one’s body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in the Solar System orbiting the sun.[1] As explained by Sufis:[2]
Maxim Ksuta 