Maxim Wakultschik
Born in 1973, Minsk | Belarus
Maxim Wakultschik's art consists of mathematically precise constructions that create order out of a chaos of various independent elements. In his complex and multilayered objects, the artist explores the interplay between light and shadow as well as the balance between surface structure and colour vibration.
Works CV Video
Art
Wakultschik’s work focuses on the interplay between light, shadow, and optical illusions. By leveraging the reflective properties of ambient light, he creates artworks that oscillate and transform with the viewer’s movement. His pieces blur the line between reality and illusion, becoming kinetic objects that invite continuous reinterpretation.
Maxim Wakultschik’s artistic practice testifies to an extraordinary curiosity as well as to an eagerness to experiment with different techniques and materials. The artist, who trained in painting, repeatedly breaks with the classical concept of the image; an expansion beyond the two-dimensional into the object-like can be discerned.
For his Optical Portraitsseries, begun in the mid-2010s, Wakultschik chooses hand-colored toothpicks as source material and creates female faces full of grace. They are ideal typical female figures that, with titles such as Karmentisor Nemea,refer to Greek mythology – the world of nymphs and nereids.
Each work is based on meticulous digital preparatory work. Algorithms simulate the motif – composed of a multitude of small dots – on the screen. Wakultschik’s approach is reminiscent of the production of a raster graphic, with the difference being that each pixel is replaced, so to speak, by a toothpick precisely inserted on a KAPA plate. Depending on the format, up to 100 000 color-nuanced wooden sticks are used.