"Echoes of the Basilica Cistern" Fine Art Print

I was born on January 23 in Moscow, into a family where creation, discipline, and intellect formed the atmosphere of everyday life. Engineers, artists, sculptors, writers, publicists, composers, doctors, educators, and hereditary military officers — mine was a household where stories were drawn, built, composed, and passed down. In that vibrant mix of worlds, I found my place: somewhere between art and structure, image and idea. From a young age, I gravitated toward drawing, fascinated not just by what things looked like — but by how they were made. Between 2006 and 2009, I participated in and won numerous school art competitions and was responsible for the artistic design of most events at School 494. In 2008, I took part in a charity fair at the Foreign Office in London, and by 2009, I had my first exhibition — at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the UK, where I was personally thanked by Ambassador Yuri Fedotov. I studied industrial graphics at MAXY, under the guidance of Irina Dragunskaya and Elena Molchanova, and graduated with honors. I deepened my skills further with advanced design training there, but at the same time, I followed another path: science. At the N.E. Bauman Moscow State Technical University, I studied technical physics and graduated with honors. I worked in the renowned laboratory of Prof. Dr. sc. Vladimir Gorelik at the Russian Academy of Sciences — where I explored physical structure and precision. And yet, art remained central. My first personal exhibition was held at Bauman University, in a place better known for formulas than for visual storytelling. It marked the beginning of a new synthesis for me — the integration of visual art and architecture. In 2019, I moved to Germany and began studying architecture at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). It was an intense, transformative experience. Under professors Benedikt Boucsein and Matthias Faul, I explored the intersection of conceptual rigor and expressive form. I worked as a graphic designer at Cathaia International, a teacher of mathematics and computer science at MAXY, and later as an assistant to the Deputy Director there. From teaching to building, from drawing to modeling, I immersed myself fully. I spent 2021–2022 as an exchange student at the University of Ferrara, working in the studio of Professor Antonello Stella. That period shaped my thinking deeply — giving me a Mediterranean lens on architectural thought and aesthetic clarity.