Eugene Soloviev is a digital artist who creates surreal installations that seem to challenge the physical limits of a single room. While many sculptors aim for the wide expanses of a public plaza, Soloviev often focuses on the tension created when a massive, abstract form is dropped into a domestic or architectural setting. In his work Appassionata, several orange busts of human heads and shoulders are suspended in the air throughout a large, light blue room. The space is filled with ornate wall carvings and patterned floors, but the floating figures disrupt the traditional elegance of the marble and the chandeliers hanging from the decorated ceiling. I find the way these bright figures hover between the doorways and windows to be quite startling against the calm blue of the walls.
Soloviev also explores how large-scale forms interact with the human figure in more industrial or outdoor environments. In the piece titled Airorr, a person in a plaid shirt and dark pants stands inside a large, reflective, metallic loop that rests on paved ground. This metallic structure is shaped like a twisted ring or a Mobius strip, and you can see the surrounding stone wall and the person reflected on its grey surface. It feels like a piece of automotive design that has been twisted into a minimalist sculpture. Even when he moves outside, as in Elixir, the focus remains on a singular, dreamlike encounter. A person stands on a rock looking up at a large, ribbed, grey object floating in the sky while the low sun casts light on the water. It is interesting to compare this to Lerson’s Art Exhibition, where a large, dark fish with white scales is suspended above people in a stone hall. Both artists use the scale of the room to create a sense of illusion that feels both heavy and weightless at the same time.
