Vladimir Ovchinnikov (graffiti artist)


Vladimir Aleksandrovich Ovchinnikov is a painter, ethnographer, social activist, and founder of the wall painting of the city of Borovsk.

Biography

Vladimir Ovchinnikov was born in 1938 in Dushanbe. Graduated from Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, he worked on construction sites and was also engaged in scientific work. Candidate of Economic Sciences. Until 1998 he lived in Moscow, and then, after retirement, settled in the city of Borovsk, Kaluga Oblast. He started drawing during his school days, when there was enough free time for it. But only in the last period, after having settled in Borovsk, he was able to devote himself entirely to painting.
In 2000 he had a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Borovsk. There he presented about 100 works - landscapes, portraits, still lifes, made with pastels.
In the reading room of the Central Library of Obninsk he met :ru:Частикова, Эльвира Николаевна|Elvira Chastikova, who later would become his wife:
The search in non-traditional areas led Vladimir Ovchinnikov to graffiti and wall painting:

Murals by Vladimir Ovchinnikov

During four summer seasons, Ovchinnikov, a self-taught artist, made about a hundred paintings on the houses of Borovsk, creating on the dull blank walls of city buildings, boarded-up windows, fences, about 90 different subjects. Themes are chosen and selected with the help of his wife. Many of the paintings are accompanied by poems written by Elvira.

Ovchinnikov's Star Ship

Ovchinnikov's Star Ship is an art object object in Borovsk, representing a 10-meter concrete cylinder with images of outstanding space scientists, writers, astronauts. The artist Vladimir Ovchinnikov turned an abandoned building into a Space Ark.

Gallery repressed

Gallery of 20 portraits from photos of repressed citizens Borovsk district was created in the concrete wall in the center of the city of Borovsk in August 2016. The gallery includes portraits of 20 borovchan shot in 1937–1938. Memorial contains the inscription – "For whom the bell ringing Borovsk...". Gallery was destroyed by vandals in three days after the opening of the memorial. The event caused a wide resonance in the media.
Vladimir Ovchinnikov is not only famous for his frescoes, which for many years adorn the walls of houses in Borovsk. His main desire - to install a monument in the city of the repressed:
For fifteen years the artist collected materials for the gallery of the repressed people.
In August, this monument finally appeared: 18 portraits of the repressed, which the artist has painted... on the fence of his neighbor.
But his another attempt to create a memorial gallery was smashed by the actions of hooligans and vandals. On the wall of one of the shops in the center of Borovsk, a painting of 20 killed people and the image of Alexander Solzhenitsyn was destroyed after only two days. Ovchinnikov's work was destroyed methodically and carefully.

Literature