An exhibition by Aleksey Shtern will run at Erarta from March 13 to April 2.

Over the years of work Alekseyi Shtern, an artist from St.Petersburg, has created his own artistic world. This world features its own cities, outskirts and inhabitants. Original technique as well as dramaturgical, psychological and social approaches converts the artworks into unique lyrical and philosophical theater of grotesque — brutal, realistic and poetic at the same time.

Most of works, presented at the exhibition, are portraits of the artist's contemporaries (artists, actors, musicians, doctors, homeless people), painted from life. Each portrait is a different story, a metaphysical narration about the person and time. The author's artistic language and personal interpretation create the whole subjective space — Shternopolis, where the tragic is connected with the comic, where the private is always a part of the universal.

Among the citizens of Shternopolis there are artists, art critics, and ordinary people. What always remains unchanged is the unique optics and the artist's vision of time, reflected in faces and images.