“I never liked these photo-realistic paintings. I always preferred imperfect paintings and images, I was inspired by the impressionists who began to turn away from the traditional style and the academic norms.”

​Alexey Shahov was born in Kyrgyzstan, and emigrated to the Czech Republic with his family at the age of 12, he currently lives and works in Prague.

He paints and draws in his own unique style. He often starts on Photoshop, drawing portraits of characters and mixing those with abstract shapes and structures.

He almost always depicts strange, disfigured faces and bodies surrounded by abstract shapes, with greys, whites and blacks the dominant colors and splashes of brighter hues popping up every so often. He will share some of these pieces in their original form as digital sketches, but sometimes he projects them to create stencils and recreates them using spray paint on paper. Other works are combinations of spray paint and acrylic colors on canvas. He also uses other media such as collages, photography or video.

His work is influenced by ancient artwork, prehistoric caves paintings, folk craft, old cartoons and last but not least, contemporary popular culture.


www.instagram.com/shahishisname
www.shahishisname.tumblr.com
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African Roots

“I love working digitally because you can start with a shape and just completely transform it, and every time it’s different from the last. I never use a template. It all comes from my imagination.”