Oleksandr Balbyshev is a Ukrainian contemporary artist currently living and working in Germany. His practice combines oil painting with experiments using Soviet-era found objects and explores queer identity, masculinity, vulnerability, historical memory, and the transformation of ideological symbols.
One direction of his work focuses on the male body. Through vivid color, sensuality, and references to art history, Balbyshev challenges the cultural discomfort surrounding male nudity and explores alternative ways of understanding masculinity. His paintings treat the male body not as a symbol of dominance, but as a space of tenderness, desire, uncertainty, and emotional openness.
The second direction reinterprets portraits, sculptures, and propaganda objects inherited from the Soviet period. By painting over, fragmenting, and playfully transforming these objects, the artist strips them of their former ideological authority and gives them new visual and emotional meanings.
Across both bodies of work, Balbyshev combines personal experience with broader questions of identity, memory, power, and cultural transformation. His works are held in private collections across Europe, North America, Australia, and beyond.
Oil on the Found Porcelain Bust
Size: 18 x 14.5 x 7.5 cm | 7 x 5.7 x 2.9 in
Oil on the Found Porcelain Bust
Size: 18.5 × 15x8 cm | 7.2 × 5.9 x 3.1 in
Oil on the Found Porcelain Bust
Size: 13.5 x 11.5 x 7 cm | 5.3 x 4.5 x 2.8 in
Oil on the Found Porcelain Bust
Size: 13.5 x 11.5 x 7.5 cm | 5.3 x 4.5 x 3 in
