Dmitry Shabalin was born in 1993 in Berezniki, Perm region. He studied in the journalism department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, and later at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA Moscow). From 2013 to 2016 Shabalin was fashion editor for the magazines Numéro and Interview. Since 2013 the artist has been studying the phenomenon of masks in world history and creating his own art. In 2017, Dmitry Shabalin's artworks were shown at the Revelations International Biennale of Decorative and Applied Art at Paris' Grand Palais.

Shabalin's works are syntheses of the baroque form, with its expressive and ornate elegance, on the one hand, and the tradition of arte povera, with its roots in Dadaism and its aestheticization of trash and "vulgar" materials, on the other. Salvaged children's toys, vintage jewellery, souvenirs, pins, stones – these and other cheap items that were initially intended for immediate use and a short life acquire the value of artifacts in Shabalin's hands.

Reminding us of the catastrophic nature of hyper consumerism, Shabalin puts the chaotic shards of the world together again in a kaleidoscopic, collage-like form. For Shabalin, this form is the mask which encodes the modern day spirit. His main artistic practice is creating masks as autonomous objects, intended not to be worn but rather to be contemplated.

Basing his work on the aesthetics of ritual and carnival masks, the artist sees masks as an instrument for implementing a mystical metamorphosis, which both dehumanises the wearer and bestows upon him or her the features of another being, a separate persona with its own character. In Shabalin's postmodernistic fantasy universe the mythological god warriors and Egyptian priests coinсide with heroes from Mortal Kombat, Spiderman and Transformers.

The paradox with which Dmitry Shabalin works is how, while hiding oneself behind mask images, one still retains the possibility of personal expression? Each mask for the artist is a separate story, passed through his own experience, filled with associations from his personal dreams and childhood memories. According to the author, in each mask he collects himself in a new way through objects that were previously random and chaotic. And in this sense, all his masks are always self-portraits.


Selected Exhibitions:

2021 —Pure Experience —PA Gallery, Moscow
2021 —SOVRISK —Zaryadye Underground Museam, Moscow
2020 — Break 15 minutes. Part 2 — All-Russian Decorative Art Museum, Moscow
2020 — STATE OF EMERGENCY — Triumph Gallery, Moscow
2019 — THIS IS STILL LIFE — PA Gallery. Moscow
2019 — EARTH / HEAVEN — Agency. Art Ru, Moscow
2018 — PARTICLES — Solo exhibition. Apothecary Garden, the Botanical Gardens of Moscow State University, Moscow
2017 — SCARY STORIES — GROUND Gallery, Moscow
2017 — NEO: SUSTAINABLE FASHION — Russian National Museum of Decorative, Applied, and Folk Art, Moscow
2017 — AHAHAMOSCOW — ART4.ru Museum and Auction of Contemporary Art, Moscow
2017 — MON trésor — Russian Tea Room Gallery, Paris
2017 — REVELATIONS, International Fine Craft Biennale, Grand Palais, Paris
2016 — WOW: Architecture of Fantasy, Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
2016 — FACE OFF —AIR Moscow, Moscow
2016 — ART I WOULD DIE FOR — Bernheimer Contemporary Gallery, Berlin
2016 — NEW GODS — Polyanka4 Gallery, Sochi
2015 — SAY I LOVE YOU — Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow
2015 — VISUALIZATION OF SOUND — WeArt Gallery, Moscow
2014 — PARAFORMA 2.0 —Solo Exhibition. AIR Moscow, Moscow
2013 — PARAFORMA 1.0 — Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg