An architect by training, Olga Tobreluts is also known as a painter and multimedia artist. In the 1990s, she was a leading member of Timur Novikov’s group of artists in St Petersburg, known as the “New Academics”. The movement rejected modernism and the avant-garde and turned to classical antiquity, Russia’s imperial and totalitarian past, Hollywood films, Western advertising, homoeroticism and kitsch representations of ideal beauty.
Tobreluts was a pioneer in the introduction of digital media into the Russian art scene. In her series Models, she uses computers to dress classical sculptural portraits of ancient gods and heroes in the costumes of renowned fashion brands, creating an alternative contemporary reality where ancient figures are made to look disturbingly alive and fashionable.
The mythological characters and their stories have given the artist new opportunities to reflect on male and female roles, women’s position in society and the changing times of feminism throughout the twenties. The attraction of the authoritarian regimes of the time to classical art and the antique ideal of beauty further nuances the interpretation of neo-academicism and Tobreluts’ works in St Petersburg.
Krisztina Szipőcs