In his new series “Monumental Miniatures”, Alexander Zhyvotkov turns to the small format without relinquishing the monumentality inherent in his art. Though modest in size, these works do not feel intimate or confined; they retain the inner tension, density, and sense of scale characteristic of large-format painting. Here, space does not diminish together with the format — it compresses, concentrates, and acquires a particular intensity.

In this context, monumentality is not connected to physical dimensions. It manifests through the structure of the composition, the weight of the sign, and the interaction between matter and void. Each miniature functions as a self-sufficient image — complete and focused, free of incidental detail.

In these works, the artist continues to develop the symbolic system central to his practice. The circle, the bird, the female figure, and the cross reappear not as illustrative symbols but as archetypal forms — signs that exist beyond specific time or context. They emerge in a purified state, stripped of narrative and reduced to structural essence. In this reduction lies a striving toward the universal, toward a language that operates at the level of inner perception.

At the same time, the artist revisits recognizable images from his paintings of the 2000s. The motif of the Moroccan Women returns in a new scale and a different plastic quality — as a memory reconsidered through the experience of time and the reduction of form. In parallel, these works contain paraphrases of European art, with references to the imagery of Francisco Goya and Diego Velázquez. This is not quotation but dialogue, in which historical images pass through the filter of the artist’s language, lose their narrative specificity, and transform into concentrated points of tension.

The small format compels the viewer to approach closely, to enter the space of the work physically and attentively. At the same time, these pieces do not require prolonged “reading”; they act directly, like a sign or a presence. Their monumentality lies in their ability to hold the gaze, to create a sense of weight and silence regardless of scale.

The exhibition Monumental Miniatures marks a new stage in Alexander Zhyvotkov’s practice — a stage of concentration and inner rigor, in which form achieves ultimate clarity and the image reaches its fullest intensity.