Igor & Marina
Current exhibition, Past Perfect Present Tense, on view in San Francisco through October 31st.
In Past Perfect Present Tense, we bring together figures, symbols, and dreams that come from different centuries and personal memories, and place them into one space—our canvas.
Many of these paintings began with fragments: a piece of antique lace, a gold leaf, a pattern from a forgotten textile, or a passing figure in a dream. Slowly, they grew into stories—about silence, about rituals, about the people we carry with us through time.
We paint together, always. We argue, we laugh, we change course. Our process is layered, just like our work. And with every brushstroke, we try to dissolve the borders between past and present—so that what was, and what is, become one.
These paintings are not about nostalgia. They are about presence—about finding beauty in the tension between what we remember and what we still don’t understand.
Biography
Working as a husband-and-wife team, the Russian-born duo Igor Kozlovsky and Marina Sharapova collaborate on each painting. Igor and Marina were rigorously taught the skills of the Old Renaissance Masters within their academic training at Mukhina Academy of Art and Design in St. Petersburg, Russia and learned to combine ancient and modern techniques with fluidity. As a result, the paintings are influenced by, and recall, a diverse spectrum of artists and eras: famous avant-garde figures like Chagall, Malevich, and Kandinsky as well as fifteenth-century Russian religious painters. Marina possesses an excellent subtle touch for realistic drawing and is capable of creating new images on the basis of the works of older artists, particularly those of the Italian and Dutch renaissance. Igor’s specialty is a subtle sense for color, a wonderful appreciation for the tactile nature of paint, canvas, and wood, and an intuitive feel for how to play with abstract images.
In each of Igor and Marina’s paintings, a narrative seems to emerge—yet it always eludes us, like fragments of a dream upon waking. Just as dreams weave together disparate elements into a seamless experience, Igor and Marina merge the modern with the traditional, the representational with the abstract, and even their own contrasting personalities into each work. Their figures appear at once contemporary and historical—modern individuals draped in costumes of the past, or figures of another era transported into the present. With a masterful sense of the enigmatic, the seductive, and the dreamlike, Igor and Marina invite us to cross the threshold into their surreal, imagined world.
Education
1985 MFA, Mukhina Academy of Art and Design, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Awards
2006 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York, NY
2015 Adolph & Ester Gottlieb Foundation, New York, NY
Selected Two-Person Exhibitions
2025 Past Perfect Present Tense, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023 The Plexus of Time, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA
2022 Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2021 Caldwell Snyder Gallery
2020 Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2019 Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2018 Flexible Parallels, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco
2017 American Academy of Arts, Visiting Artist, Chicago, IL
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2016 RJD Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2015 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014 KM Fine Arts Gallery, Chicago, IL
2013 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA
Campton Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
2010 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
2009 Wall Street Journal, The Durst Organization (sponsor), New York, NY
Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL
2008 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
Norteastern Illinois University
Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL
Campton Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA
Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL
2006 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL
Selected Corporate Collections
International Corporate Art (ICArt), Olslo, London, Miami • Regent Seven Seas Cruises, U.S.A. • The Colburn Family, U.S.A. • Mrs. Joyce Chelburg, Chicago, IL • Martha Stewart, New York, NY • S&R Foundations, Wachington D.C. • Newmark Knight Frank, New York, NY • Hendrix Allardyce, Los Angeles, CA • Sara Lee Corporation, New York, NY • The Durst Organization, New York, NY • Hollywood’s producers and actors, Los Angeles, CA • Bristol Meyers Squibb Company, U.S.A. • Alinea Restaurant Art Collections, Chicago, IL • Potash Corporation, U.S.A. and Canada • Governor of Tokyo, Japan
Press
PRESS
Selected Artworks
Education
1985 MFA, Mukhina Academy of Art and Design, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Awards
2006 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York, NY
2015 Adolph & Ester Gottlieb Foundation, New York, NY
Selected Two-Person Exhibitions
2025 Past Perfect Present Tense, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023 The Plexus of Time, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA
2022 Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2021 Caldwell Snyder Gallery
2020 Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2019 Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2018 Flexible Parallels, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco
2017 American Academy of Arts, Visiting Artist, Chicago, IL
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2016 RJD Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2015 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014 KM Fine Arts Gallery, Chicago, IL
2013 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA
Campton Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
2010 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
2009 Wall Street Journal, The Durst Organization (sponsor), New York, NY
Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL
2008 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
Norteastern Illinois University
Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL
Campton Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA
Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL
2006 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago, IL
Selected Corporate Collections
International Corporate Art (ICArt), Olslo, London, Miami • Regent Seven Seas Cruises, U.S.A. • The Colburn Family, U.S.A. • Mrs. Joyce Chelburg, Chicago, IL • Martha Stewart, New York, NY • S&R Foundations, Wachington D.C. • Newmark Knight Frank, New York, NY • Hendrix Allardyce, Los Angeles, CA • Sara Lee Corporation, New York, NY • The Durst Organization, New York, NY • Hollywood’s producers and actors, Los Angeles, CA • Bristol Meyers Squibb Company, U.S.A. • Alinea Restaurant Art Collections, Chicago, IL • Potash Corporation, U.S.A. and Canada • Governor of Tokyo, Japan
Working as a husband-and-wife team, the Russian-born duo Igor Kozlovsky and Marina Sharapova collaborate on each painting. Igor and Marina were rigorously taught the skills of the Old Renaissance Masters within their academic training at Mukhina Academy of Art and Design in St. Petersburg, Russia and learned to combine ancient and modern techniques with fluidity. As a result, the paintings are influenced by, and recall, a diverse spectrum of artists and eras: famous avant-garde figures like Chagall, Malevich, and Kandinsky as well as fifteenth-century Russian religious painters. Marina possesses an excellent subtle touch for realistic drawing and is capable of creating new images on the basis of the works of older artists, particularly those of the Italian and Dutch renaissance. Igor’s specialty is a subtle sense for color, a wonderful appreciation for the tactile nature of paint, canvas, and wood, and an intuitive feel for how to play with abstract images.
In each of Igor and Marina’s paintings, a narrative seems to emerge—yet it always eludes us, like fragments of a dream upon waking. Just as dreams weave together disparate elements into a seamless experience, Igor and Marina merge the modern with the traditional, the representational with the abstract, and even their own contrasting personalities into each work. Their figures appear at once contemporary and historical—modern individuals draped in costumes of the past, or figures of another era transported into the present. With a masterful sense of the enigmatic, the seductive, and the dreamlike, Igor and Marina invite us to cross the threshold into their surreal, imagined world.
Biography
Press
Current exhibition, Past Perfect Present Tense, on view in San Francisco through October 31st.
In Past Perfect Present Tense, we bring together figures, symbols, and dreams that come from different centuries and personal memories, and place them into one space—our canvas.
Many of these paintings began with fragments: a piece of antique lace, a gold leaf, a pattern from a forgotten textile, or a passing figure in a dream. Slowly, they grew into stories—about silence, about rituals, about the people we carry with us through time.
We paint together, always. We argue, we laugh, we change course. Our process is layered, just like our work. And with every brushstroke, we try to dissolve the borders between past and present—so that what was, and what is, become one.
These paintings are not about nostalgia. They are about presence—about finding beauty in the tension between what we remember and what we still don’t understand.
Igor & Marina
With the exhibition "On the Shore of the Sky" we continue our journey into the dream-like space where our distant memories take shape. All the books we read, the performances we saw, the music we heard, the places we visited, all this turns into impressions. Throughout human life, these impressions are accumulated, superimposed on one another, forming, so to speak, geological layers in our subconscious.
Our memories give rise to vague images that are subsequently transformed into a subject for the painting. The goal of this show is to unlock the door and take viewers through to the other side. White peacocks roam freely here, old tapestries come to life, you can talk with a mechanical person about the meaning of life and meet the heroes of the famous novel.
Welcome to the world of our imagination, to the ends of the earth, to the Shore of the Sky!
Current exhibition, Past Perfect Present Tense, on view in San Francisco through October 31st.
In Past Perfect Present Tense, we bring together figures, symbols, and dreams that come from different centuries and personal memories, and place them into one space—our canvas.
Many of these paintings began with fragments: a piece of antique lace, a gold leaf, a pattern from a forgotten textile, or a passing figure in a dream. Slowly, they grew into stories—about silence, about rituals, about the people we carry with us through time.
We paint together, always. We argue, we laugh, we change course. Our process is layered, just like our work. And with every brushstroke, we try to dissolve the borders between past and present—so that what was, and what is, become one.
These paintings are not about nostalgia. They are about presence—about finding beauty in the tension between what we remember and what we still don’t understand.