Perplexity is probably the most natural first reaction to the art of Sergey Frolakov. His fantastic world abounds with impossible creatures at once frightening and delightful: hydras, medusas, fairies, trolls, spirits of lakes and forests, flying fish, humanoids and homo-paradoxums. Within the esoteric space of the artist one can see the life and battles of “inanimate nature”. Mountains, trees and towers with eyes, hands and legs, mystical eggs and unidentified flying objects – they all participate in the artistic philosophical mystery of Frolakov...
     Sergey’s style can be defined as symbolism. The artist is now very fond of the art of Arnold Boecklin, a Swiss painter whose allegorical and fantastical paintings, many based on mythical creatures, anticipated 20th-century surrealism. However, one can find in Frolakov’s canvases the roots of a fantastic realism that is derived from 15th century medieval European art represented by such great masters of the as Bosch, Bruegel, Cranach and di Cosimo. A closer look at the artist’s world reveals that a convenient moniker with a prefix “sur-” would be inappropriate here.
     Frolakov’s eerie fanciful characters spook you mostly by force of habit. They bear no evil, mean no harm. They symbolize the troubled dream of modern civilization through sublimating the feelings and reflections on the nervous and irrational side of life. “Paintings require an allegorical approach,” says Sergey. “I include the signs of the contemporary world, different technical devices and machineries, in my paintings using the language of the painting. For example, I depict many objects like anthropomorphic substances in order to emphasize their individuality, their character. My works seem to be absurd but images in them are combined into one common logical context, so everything is very plausible.”
     The compositions are feverishly idiosyncratic in “Breath of St. Petersburg”. Rational wakefulness is supplanted by emotions, dreams, fantasies, and associations melting together to form an alluring virtual realm. A contrived plot juxtaposed against poignantly mystical reality. The art of Frolakov is a reflection on human existence and an insight into the fate and predestination of an artist, a creator. Sergey Frolakov was born in St. Petersburg in 1964. In 1994 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Design and Applied Arts. His art has been exhibited since 1981 extensively in Russia and around the world. His main personal exhibitions include the exposition in the Russian Union of Artists in 1993, the worldwide exhibition in Paris in1994, the Russian Art exhibition in Geneva in 1996, the exposition in the Central House of Artist in Moscow in 2001 and the exhibition in Munich in 2002 among others. Frolakov took part in world biennales of contemporary art in Innsbruck (Austria) and Monte-Carlo, along with such painters as Ernst Fuchs, Andy Warhol, Giorgio de Chirico and HR Giger. The works of Sergey Frolakov can be found in Russian and overseas collections, in the USA, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and others, including the Fantasy Art Foundation collection in the Castle of Gruille, Switzerland, and the collection of the International Graphic Design Centre in Ishikawa, Japan.
     Frolakov is a member of the Foundation of the Independent Russian Contemporary Art. Some of his works are constantly on display in the Mikhailov Gallery at 53 Liteiny Prospect.

     Isachev Gallery: 82 Moika Emb., Tel.: 312 5131
     Mikhailov Gallery 53 Liteiny Pr., Tel.: 272 6366, 272 4848.