SERGEY KONONOV

In his intimate portraits, Ukrainian artist Sergey Kononov (b. 1994, Odesa) captures quiet moments in time. His tender, introspective scenes are imbued with a sense of familiarity and longing. In his recent paintings, Kononov unveils glimpses of solitude or togetherness: lovers gaze into one another’s eyes; a girl sleeps beside her dog; a couple lie entwined on a carpeted floor. Something of their inner-selves becomes conveyed on their outer-parameters, where light rebounds off the contours of their faces or bodies. Their eyes never meet the viewer: we remain on the outside looking in.

Light-drenched and pooled in grainy, ochre tones, Kononov’s canvases are reminiscent of film-stills from early cinema. ‘It’s important for me to capture a luminosity. I want to recreate the look of old films – that grain, that warm light – which I’ve loved my whole life,’ he explains. Meticulously rendered from diminutive marks, his surfaces appear like pixels on a screen. The canon of art history is another important influence on his practice, from the drapery folds of Renaissance sculpture to the palette and framing of Lucian Freud. In defiant contrast to the socio-political turmoil of his homeland, Kononov’s paintings offer searingly vulnerable moments of respite.

‘Kononov’s paintings, much like the fleeting moments they capture, seem to linger just out of reach, suspended in a quiet glow. Whether it’s the light filtering through his studio windows or the connection he shares with his subjects, everything he touches seems imbued with warmth and care. And perhaps that’s the magic of his work: in a world filled with rushing, it invites you to pause and find a fragment of your own life embedded within the scenes.’

I. Bilkus, ‘Sergey Kononov doesn’t like to be rushed’, Plaster Magazine, October 2024

Image: Nicole, 2024, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 70.5 cm.; 27 3/4 x 27 3/4 in.; 73 x 73 x 4 cm.; 28 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 1 5/8 in. (framed)​​ Photo: def image