Egor Plotnikov: on reconstructing the art of landscape painting

Mid-career Russian artist Egor Plotnikov (b.1980) works in the traditional fields of classical landscape painting and sculpture yet often mixing these two media in his idiosyncratic installations. Plotnikov studied in Moscow at the Surikov Art Academy which gave him a rigorous grounding in the tradition of academic painting and seeded his love for the genre of landscape. Playing with different materials and shapes, characters come out into the gallery space from his canvasses in what becomes an immersive and interactive experience for the viewer. He talks to Art Focus Now about where his ideas come from and what is the essence of the Russian landscape.