From the early to mid-2000s, the art of Yuri Nikiforov, who had already received the nickname "Colonel", underwent a plastic and semantic transformation. Even before that time, the artist was not afraid of expression, brutal materials, large formats, or big themes. However, the "center of gravity" in the works of that period began to shift from solving plastic problems and searching for an expressive gesture to transmitting social and existential discontent, anxiety and disagreement. Foam rubber, wires, hair, dirt, cigarette butts, rusty bolts, grease, plasterboard, bent reinforcement, cotton wool not only supplemented the artist's pictorial arsenal, diversified the set of textures and increased abstract expressiveness. They gave the works an unpleasant and dangerous tactility, persistently reminding us of the difficult and painful existence that occurs outside the attention of the artistic community.
Looking from today, one cannot help but feel that time has “caught up” with the Colonel’s works. Now, in a completely different situation, the reminder of the chthonic, dark undercurrent of life, of privacy and comfort that can be turned inside out with one aggressive gesture, of injuries, cuts, fractures and the painful act of insight do not look like offended passive-aggressive grumbling, splashing out excess mental energy in an inappropriate place and obsessive blabber about one’s own internal and professional problems. The worries and pain of today are tangible in the works of Yuri Nikiforov, and the radical and forceful methods of “restoring the surface” and tightening the edges of the seam, proposed by the artist, look like a gesture of severe mercy and give hope.
Text: Alexander Dashevsky
