ZORIKTO DORZHIEV

Zorikto has emerged as one of Russia's most acclaimed young artists, with his work exhibited in 2008 at the Council of Europe and the Beijing Olympics, and his recent series Steppe Story shown for two months at St Petersburg's Russian Museum in 2009. Along with precise draughtsmanship and vivd colour, Zorikto displays subtle humour and gift for caricature. Nomadic Buryat life is his main subject. To Zorikto, “a nomad is an artist, a poet, a philosopher, and often a loner.” He is equally at home portraying sensuous females – his iconic Mona Lisa Khatun has been dubbed the “Madonna of the Steppes” – or warriors on horseback, evoking Buryats' Mongol ancestors. Zorikto worked as a set-designer for Sergei Bodrov’s blockbuster movie Mongol, and illustrated Isay Kalashnikov's The cruel Age; he also designs traditional-style Buryat head-dresses.

1976 – Born in Ulan-Ude (Siberia)

1991-1996 - Buryat Republican College of Arts, Ulan-Ude

1996-2002 - Krasnoyarsk State Institute of Arts, painting department, prof. A. M. Znak studio

2003-2005 –Russian Academy of Arts (the Urals, Siberia and the Far East branch), studio of A. P. Levitin

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