The Museum of Russian Art: A Ukrainian-born artist’s ‘Portal to the Surreal’ – Minneapolis, MN

The Museum of Russian Art: Born in the post-WWII Soviet Union, on the shore of the Sea of Azov, Vladimir Dikarev received his training at the Uzhgorod Fine Arts College. Situated near the borders of Slovakia and Hungary, the thousand-year-old Uzhgorod is the westernmost of Ukraine’s regional centers. While at school, Vladimir combined his academic studies with his extracurricular interests in eastern and western philosophy, poetry, and religion. His artistic tastes and preferences matured in the liberal milieu of the quaint town on the edge of the Soviet monolith.  Graduating with honors in 1968, Dikarev worked as a mosaicist, muralist, stained glass artist, and book illustrator for various Soviet-era projects.

In his studio, Dikarev explored surrealism, a style not favored by the Soviet art establishment. During the Perestroika period of the late 1980s and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dikarev exhibited his works in Ukraine, Russia, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as well as other European countries and the US. He moved to Minnesota in 1997. Since 2000, he has exhibited his works in San Francisco, Bloomington, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and other American venues.