• A painter holding the honorary title of Distinguished Artist of the Russian Federation
• Unpeopled landscapes reflecting the permanence of being
• Contrasting colour schemes and the metaphysics of art

Vladimir Daibov was born in the Urals region. His creativity evolved in the artistic environment of the late 1970s Leningrad, absorbing the influences of the Russian avant-garde, the German expressionism, and the Leningrad underground culture. While studying at the Serov Art School with fellow artists and future rock stars Georgy Guryanov and Viktor Tsoi, Daibov witnessed the inception of the Leningrad Rock Club and countercultural movement. For him, however, the time of great change was not a period of all-out theatricality, but a chance to concentrate and find his own distinctive style.    

Like a Buddhist, he escaped the turning wheel of big city life, jumped off the merry-go-round of vanity, stepped off the train in the quiet town of Kursk to get a true feeling of self and the unhurried surroundings. For some, the time in provincial towns seems to have come to a halt, but for Daibov it has distilled and purged itself of any anxiety, emerging as a pure figurative formula. His unpeopled landscapes are filled with the dense substance of contemplation, expressing not the transience, but the permanence of being. 

Deep significance, plasticity, and generalization are generic to his works. The artist favours thick and pastose strokes, sharply defined shapes, contrasting colour schemes. At the same time, Vladimir Daibov's paintings are not simply visual facts and lucky finds of striking colour combinations manifesting a tried and tested craftsmanship. Rather, they can be seen as metaphysical landscapes, at times equally capable of instilling in the viewers a kind of existential yearning and astonishing them with the unexpected beauty of the everyday.