Tell us about your education
I graduated from the Saint Petersburg’s Polytechnic University, the faculty of Public Administration. Then I had a post graduate course in Department of National Security. Obviously, it had nothing in common with art.
When did your love towards art start?
I was always inspired and emotionally relieved by art and architecture. I would go to Saint-Petersburg’s art clusters like Etazhi, Erarta museum, Pushkinskaya-10 etc., not thinking deeply about the meaning of artworks, not reading about artists, I just watched the visual shapes and felt how it resonated with me. It seemed to me that it was the only right way of consuming art, all this discourses and discussions I considered as snobbism. But there was still curiosity: who are all these people, what’s on their minds, how do they give birth to all these plots? I started to become more and more interested, I started to read, to talk, to ask questions, and… there was no way back! Art is the most honest slice of time.
How did you start your collection? What was the first artwork you purchased?
It started with "Pink Sky" by Sasha Kokacheva. Originally I liked and still like her artwork called "Puddle", but it’s too big to hang on the wall and those days I wasn’t ready to spend that amount of money on it. I decided to have a look at her other artworks and I really enjoyed "Pink Sky".
Sasha Kokacheva. Pink Sky. 2020, mixed media, 40 x 40 cm
What are the ways you choose the artists for your collection?
It depends! I can just like the artwork and want to have it, without even knowing the author. It can also be the opposite, I want an artwork of a very certain painter
What are your favorite mediums?
I’m in love with paintings, but, weirdly enough, my collection consists mainly of objects and graphics.
Paintings from what cities and counties of origin do you mostly have?
Primarily the artworks by painters from Saint Petersburg.
Is there a thing than brings your entire collection together?
My impeccable taste. Just kidding. To be honest, the thing is in the fact that my collection is full of artefacts of our time. The art of before-covid times. "Rare birds discussing the Big Clay" - it’s literally the reportage from the summer of 2021!
Natalia Lotareva. Rare birds are discussing Big Clay No. 4 by Urs Fischer. 2021
Do you have friends among artists?
Well I was and still am in touch with a lot of them, we communicate in social media or at exhibitions, but to be friends - with no one.
