Sanya Kantarovsky

Sanya Kantarovsky’s paintings feature sinewy, morose figures who pose alone or congregate in groups against abstract and surreal backdrops. Dry humor and existential angst infuse his colorful scenes, which have alternately focused on lovers, mothers, children, and strangers. The artist takes inspiration from cartoons, folk tales, Eastern European aesthetics, and fine artists including Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and the Surrealists. Kantarovsky studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and worked for ad agencies before receiving his MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles. Since then, he’s exhibited in New York, Berlin, London, and beyond. His work has sold for six figures at auction and has been acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art, the Hammer Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Tate, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among other institutions. Kantarovsky has also produced sculpture and animation, and curated shows of his own.