Untitled, A Novella

Andrey Olenev is known for his work in the fields of painting and public art. His early works, including murals in the center of Nizhny Novgorod, often explored themes of freedom, the internal world, and the link between humans and the environment. Olenev has been developing an artist’s book genre in which atypical forms become an integral part of the narrative.

In the work Untitled, A Novella the artist transforms both the visual and tactile structure. This time, referencing the notebook form, he uses photographic printing on stretched Kraft paper sheets, fixing them to a painted wooden board with a leather spine.

The dramaturgy of the book is constructed around symbolic images, including personal and universal motifs that reference philosophical musings on the microcosm. Beginning on the second page, the barely readable handwritten text is displaced by watercolor illustrations which grow in size, with the handwriting becoming increasingly illegible. The novella concludes with a depiction of a face concealed in a tree trunk, a symbol of the archaic connection between humans and nature.