Vladimir Kordiukov (1953-2009)
A2 Galerie is the sole official representative of the Kordiukov Heritage Collection, preserving and promoting the legacy of one of the most distinctive voices in late Soviet and post-Soviet visual culture.
Vladimir Kordiukov (1953–2009) was a distinguished Soviet interdisciplinary artist, jewelry designer, painter, graphic artist, and sculptor. His artistic vision combines diverse materials and techniques, reflecting influences from postmodernism, suprematism, and cubism. Kordiukov's visual language is characterized by an exploration of form and color, with surface reliefs adding depth and spatiality to his creations.
Throughout his career, Kordiukov gained widespread recognition for his innovative methods, participating in over 100 international exhibitions. His works pushed the boundaries of material experimentation while maintaining a connection to the formal traditions of Soviet art.
Kordiukov's legacy is preserved in museums and private collections worldwide, with a significant portion held in Berlin, Germany. His works are housed in the collections of the Vologda Art Gallery, the Vologda State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum, the State Russian Museum, and art museums in Kostroma, Sokol, Yaroslavl, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, and Pskov. His art is also part of the collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, and the Seoul Museum of Art in South Korea. Additionally, his creations are held in private collections in Russia, Finland, Germany, France, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, and the United States.
BATIK ART
Vladimir Kordiukov’s approach to textile art is marked by an extraordinary precision — a jeweler’s sensibility applied to fabric. His work transcends the traditional boundaries of batik, transforming the textile surface into a site of layered meaning, vibrant color, and intricate construction. Blending both hot and cold batik techniques, Kordiukov manipulates fabric with painterly freedom, yet technical control. He builds his compositions through successive layers of dyes, enamel, acrylic, and varnish, often integrating natural and synthetic fabrics, metallic foil, textured textiles, and found materials. The result is a hybrid surface that behaves like both painting and object.
Kordiukov’s artworks are also deeply architectural in feel — their segmented forms and glowing color blocks recall the visual language of stained glass. Like a contemporary vitraillist, he crafts light through opacity and transparency, guiding the viewer’s eye with rhythm and contrast. This resemblance is further enhanced by his use of textile collage, hand-crafted paper, and light assemblage, which elevate the surface into a textured, relief-like space. His visual syntax resonates with that of 20th-century German artists, particularly those from the Expressionist and Bauhaus traditions. Echoes of Paul Klee appear in his poetic abstraction and symbolic layering, while the material experimentation and surface logic of Anni Albers and the Bauhaus textile movement find renewed expression in his work. Kordiukov shares their belief that textile is not merely decorative, but conceptual — a vehicle for modern artistic thought.
There is a sense of narrative in his compositions — urban dreamscapes, mythological forms, musical echoes — all held within a precise framework of lines, colors, and materials. Each piece invites close viewing, revealing details embedded like artifacts in a mosaic. Over the years, Kordiukov has developed a substantial body of work in this technique, with a collection of over 50 pieces that showcase the full range of his expressive language and material experimentation.
Title: Mermaid
Medium: Hot batik, enamel, acrylic, varnish
Dimensions: 96 × 96 cm
Year: 2006
Object Number: 246
Description: Mermaid presents a surreal, dreamlike vision where the mythological figure merges with an abstract natural setting. The orange-toned form dominates the composition, surrounded by stylized foliage and architectural elements. Layers of texture and vibrant colors evoke a fantastical underwater world, filled with both mystery and movement.
Title: St. George
Medium: Hot batik, enamel, acrylic, varnish
Dimensions: 96 × 96 cm
Year: 2006
Object Number: 249
Description:
St. George is a dynamic and expressive representation of the legendary saint in battle. The layered textures and vivid palette reflect the intensity of the mythic confrontation. The artwork blends iconographic tradition with contemporary abstraction, creating a rich visual narrative that bridges past and present.
Title: City View with Still Life
Medium: Hot batik, enamel, acrylic, varnish
Dimensions: 96 × 96 cm
Year: 2006
Object Number: 251
Description:
City View with Still Life is a poetic blend of domestic and urban elements. Small buildings, moons, and plants dance through the frame in whimsical disarray, forming a colorful patchwork of forms. The composition radiates playful curiosity, inviting the viewer to discover stories hidden within the scene.
TEXTILE COMPOSITIONS
In Vladimir Kordiukov’s textile compositions, the material itself takes center stage. Assemblage becomes a form of gesture, where fabric, thread, and found objects act not just as materials, but as autonomous visual elements. These works shift away from the fluidity of his batik pieces and move toward a denser, more tactile language. The stitching, layering, and physical presence of each component — from vinyl and copper to worn fabrics and chess pieces — suggest a practice rooted in process and transformation. There’s a strong sense of structure, where textile seams outline figures or still life forms that verge on abstraction. Through this, Kordiukov often flattens dimensional objects into planar, almost conical shapes, reminiscent of technical diagrams or ritual silhouettes.
This approach aligns his work with the spirit of the neo-avant-garde, where objecthood, construction, and surface become inseparable. The use of thread as line, textile as volume, and assemblage as image reflects an intuitive, hands-on methodology that borders on the sculptural. These pieces exist between mediums — drawing from painting, craft, and installation — and speak to Kordiukov’s position as an interdisciplinary artist. Rather than serving as decorative surface, fabric in these works becomes a language of its own: expressive, symbolic, and deeply material. The series represents a confident shift into a new medium — one that does not simply depict, but builds.
Title: Figure with Fishes and Plates
Medium: Fibreboard, assemblage, textiles, gold
Dimensions: 100 × 68 cm
Year: 2007
Object Number: 87
Description:
Figure with Fishes and Plates is a sculptural textile work composed of contrasting elements — vinyl records, copper plates, and actual dried fish — arranged to evoke a human-like form. The composition reflects Kordiukov’s signature use of assemblage to suggest transformation, ritual, and the layering of time, with materials referencing both the everyday and the symbolic.
Title: Black Cross and Two Fish
Medium: Fibreboard, assemblage, textiles, gold
Dimensions: 100 × 70 cm
Year: 2007
Object Number: 585
Description:
Black Cross and Two Fish is a powerful mixed-media piece structured around bold iconographic elements. A dark cross, stitched white forms, and two suspended fish are embedded into a textured fabric surface, recalling religious or archetypal imagery. The careful arrangement of found objects and the interplay of texture and line give the work a contemplative, almost liturgical presence.
Title: Still Life on a Yellow Background
Medium: Fibreboard, assemblage, textiles, gold
Dimensions: 100 × 68 cm
Year: 2007
Object Number: 73
Description:
Still Life on a Yellow Background explores the intersection of surface and symbol through an expressive textile-based assemblage. Bold contrasts — between tartan fabric, raw stitching, and a chess piece placed at the center — create a composition that feels at once playful and meditative. The bright yellow field evokes warmth and tactility, while the materials speak to memory, conflict, and identity.