Olga Tobreluts: I travel like Faust seduced by Mephistopheles

Olga Tobreluts (b. 1970), one of the pioneering Russian multimedia artists and visionaries. In the 1990s, being a remarkable participant of St. Petersburg underground art scene, she developed distinctive visual language rooted in digital computer aesthetics, but later turned to classical painting. Tobreluts’ works are held in the museum collections worldwide, including the Tretyakov Gallery, V&A Museum, MUHKA, Ludwig Museum, Bornholm Art Museum, and many others.

Art Focus Now met with Olga Tobreluts at her solo show “Transcoded Structures” at the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, where the artist’s recent painted and multimedia series are on display. She discussed her experimenting with computer and printing technologies, the pursuit of perfection, the fascination with triangle-based abstraction, why she thinks painting is a “jealous lady”, and how to define a masterpiece.