Sergei Isupov

Sergei Isupov finely decorates his ceramic vessels, figures, and busts with meticulously detailed narratives that evocatively unfold across the pieces’ surface, leaving the viewer to decipher the meaning of the souls dancing across the figures’ cheeks. Working with models of both human and animal subjects, the Soviet emigre displays a diversity of genre in his works, painting in a Baroque manner across one bust, employing a Byzantine brushstroke on another. Isupov began his career making intricately detailed teapot forms whose Surreal format pre-shadowed his later work. In Growth Rings (2016), a disembodied hand grabs the figure of a woman who looks back in alarm. A sad looking semi-nude version of herself is painted on her body, shown kneeling on two cats who appear to be peering out from between the main figure’s legs in a layered, obscure drama played out across the ceramic. Although best known for his ceramic works, Isupov also creates prints and drawings of an equally surreal nature.