Artem Pogribnyy was born in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where he spent the first twenty years of his life in a cozy house built by his grandfather. This is where he received his first art lessons in painting and drawing, by his father. Later he studied at the Dnepropetrovsk State Art School and the Kharkov Art and Industry Institute, from which he graduated in 1994 with a degree in painting restoration. Next to creating his own art, Artem has been working as an art restorer all his life. The aroma of old paintings, hidden images, dark varnish, the mystery of the lost fragments are a constant source of inspiration. 

 

Much to his sorrow, the family house was destroyed and a huge, characterless apartment block was built on the site of the family nest.And ever since that time, Artem has been in constant search of a home.  

 

Later, he built a new life in Kharkiv, creating a warm and comfortable home with his family, Artem was again forced to leave this home in February 2022, when the first bombings began. Not only did he have to leave the house and the city, but he had to let his wife and daughter find a safer place outside Ukraine, where they are currently living with the Krapels family in Maastricht. Since then he has been staying in the West of Ukraine, and the search for a safe and homely place to live in this world, comfort, silence and inner peace has taken on a new urgency. The search for a home, and lost beauty, admiration for the old European cities and bygone eras have given birth to a new series of paintings called Dream Fragments, each of which was finished on one of the days of this new war. 
 

A look at the beauty of ancient parks and buildings through the prism of modern digital life has given rise to the style of paintings, which can be called ‘post-industrial romanticism’.  The interior turning into a landscape, and architecture placed in a still life, refer to the aesthetics of late surrealism.

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Technology of creating paintings

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First, layers of acrylic filler and paint are applied for creating texture, effects and a basic color scheme on the canvas.  Then begins the basic process of creating a picture with acrylic paints. Once the basic work is done, the entire picture is covered with a layer of special acrylic varnish. After drying, the painting if finished by applying thin, translucent layers of oil paints, achieving a subtle transition of colors and "sfumato" effect. The colors dry for two weeks. After that the painting is covered with a final layer of oil painting varnish.

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Prices of the paintings are between €89,00 euro and €1859,00