Sergey Kononov (b. 1994) is a Ukrainian-born artist currently based in Paris, whose raw, emotionally charged paintings probe the psychological terrain of contemporary identity, masculinity, and vulnerability. Working primarily in oil, Kononov blends classical technique with unsettling intimacy, producing portraits and figurative works that are both starkly beautiful and quietly confrontational.
At the age of 9, Sergey Kononov started taking painting courses at the workshop of a local painter. Later on, he entered the Odessa Art College before joining the Odessa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. In 2015, He moved to Paris in order to take courses at the School of Fine Arts. The artist likes to combine techniques and mixes oil and aerosol bombs in order to obtain different glosses and thicknesses. The aerosol gives a clean blur, which is a characteristic style of Sergey and gives a particular contemporary effect to his work.
Kononov’s figures often seem caught between revelation and retreat, their surfaces smooth yet haunted by an undercurrent of emotional turbulence. His work explores the tension between the seen and the unseen, the erotic and the existential, evoking comparisons to both Lucian Freud and Egon Schiele. Yet his gaze is unmistakably his own — empathetic, unflinching, and deeply engaged.
Sergey Kononov — who is a member of a group called ‘Salva Frolova,’ an international organisation supporting young Ukrainian artists — paints not just people, but the fragile architectures of identity.
oil on canvas
156.5 x 126.5 cm.;
61 5/8 x 49 3/4 in.
159.5 x 129.5 x 5 cm