Sometimes compared to the work of Sigmar Polke, Gosha Ostretsov’s paintings, drawings, and installations combine a wide range of references, from Pop art and Jackson Pollock to the early 19th-century literary works of Gogol, the absurdist writings and the theater of OBERIU (a Futurist Russian collective from the 1920s and ‘30s), and the narrative installation works of Ilya Kabakov. Defining his own brand of Conceptual art, Ostretsov channels the black humor and absurdism that have long defined Russian culture, casting a parallel world in which artist-superheroes—himself often included—attempt to wrest control from an oppressive regime.