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The Soviet Union provided extraordinary classical art education to its most promising artistic talents, who were expected to produce heroic worker art in return.

Noi Volkov earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Odessa Gregor Art College and a Masters of Fine Art in ceramics from Lenningrad Muchina College. His painting of “Christ Appearing to Brezhnev” was not exactly what the state was looking for, however, and it led to Volkov’s arrest by the KGB and ultimate emigration to the United States.

His current work is unmistakable, unfettered by anyone’s expectations but his own, and drawing deeply from classical imagery. He is an obvious master of his material(s).

There is a sly wit at work in most of his pieces juxtaposing ikonic images, taken apart and reassembled in unexpected, thought provoking reincarnations.