Rustam Qbic is an artist from Kazan, Russia who creates lively illustrative scenes largely including subjects such as hooded figures seated upon a bed of moss in highly-imaginative forest scenes. He creates a wide array of paintings, wall murals, drawings, and illustrations that transport the viewer into another world.
Rustam Qbic, ‘Three Locks”
Three Locks demonstrates one of many unique dream-like landscapes that Qbic tries to portray in each of his pieces. The mixture of lightly faded colors and the sketchy quality of the two main figures creates a feeling of peace. The dream-like feel of the piece is further expressed through the whimsical combinations of shapes and items, such as the fisher with the head of a wooden house that moves like a rubik’s cube and whose secrets are kept with a series of locks. This composition drew me in because of its weird mixture of objects in addition to feeling like I am in a very odd dream. Additionally, the intricate detail placed in the nearly monotone colored figures fishing and reading a lotus-topped book contrast with the colorful depictions of the scene behind and in front of these two figures; in turn, the figures stand out and capture the attention of the viewer first.
Rustam Qbic, “Flying Mind”
Another notable piece is Qbic’s Flying Mind, which reminds me a bit of Rene Magritte and his depictions of men with faces covered up by other objects (except, here, the subject has a face that one can clearly see). It appears that Qbic includes himself or another person in many of his paintings, as this face appears in several other composition. In the piece, Qbic could be questioning his identity or challenging notions of fitting into society; he is depicted as a house and when he takes his face off, birds (possibly a symbol of freedom of his thoughts, hence “flying mind”) emerge from his head. The man in the painting seems complacent, which, in addition to the utilization of blue tones throughout the work, creates a feeling of sadness. I appreciate the amount of time that must have gone into creating the composition and marvel at the imaginative subjects he portrays.
Rustam Qbic’s works appeal to me so much because I grew up reading comics and am keen on incorporating the weird into my pieces. I find that the dream-like feel of each of his pieces are intriguing and inviting, and push me to think about the meaning or implications of a piece. I would like to illustrate more imaginative themes and ideas that do not have to do solely with still-lives or realistic renditions of subjects in the near future.