Koshelev (b. in 1987) works with a variety of mediums, including painting, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, large-scale installations, and set design. He lives between Paris, France and Brooklyn, USA.

After graduating from the Moscow’s Academic Art Lyceum, Nikolay went on to obtain an MA in monumental decorative painting at the Stroganov State Academy in Moscow before pursuing his art studies in the USA to gain an MFA degree at the New York Academy of Art. In his formative years, Koshelev combined a rigorous formal art education with immersion in graffiti culture. Koshelev’s mature style is influenced by the elaborate worlds of game-design and post Internet aesthetics. He uses painting, ceramics and large-scale theatrical installations to generate imaginary worlds, which he populates with avatars.

Koshelev seeks and finds historical rhythms that resonate with contemporaneity. His practice creates a space where the aesthetics of Japanese painting from the Edo period intertwines with Scandinavian mythology. The mysticism, transcendence and dreamlike atmosphere of Russian symbolism merge with modernist abstract techniques and fragments of graffiti coexist with surrealist forms.

Solo exhibitions include Silver Dust at Oregon Contemporary, Portland; The Moon Pool. Archive at The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; Artefacts at Bahnhof Gallery, New York, NY (online); Project 9 at Aeste Cambi, Milan and others.

Education

2014
MFA, New York Academy of Art

2010
MA, The School of Monumental Decorative Painting
 Moscow Stroganov State Academy

2004
Moscow Academic Art Lyceum at Surikov Art Academy,
 specialization painting 


Solo Exhibitions (selected)

2023
Nikolay Koshelev: Silver Dust, Oregon Contemporary, Portland, USA

2021
The Moon Pool. Paris Period, Atelier 11, Paris, France
The Moon Pool. Archive, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Artefacts, Bahnhof Gallery, New York, NY (online), USA

2019
Project 9, Aeste Cambi, Milan, Italy

Awards

2014
Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in Painting & Sculpture, NYC

Bibliography

2021
Fedorova, Katya, “At Home and At Work: Nikolay Koshelev”, The Blueprint, March 06, 2021
Bystrova, Elena, “The artist Nikolay Koshelev: I enjoy living surrounded by my works”, GQ Magazine, March 15, 2021
Milena, Orlova, “Symbolist Alexander Zilverhoff and the other imaginary artists”, The Art Newspaper Russia, March 19, 2021
Bystrova, Elena, “Lunar Set-Designer of the Imaginary Ballet”, Colta, March 23, 2021