Why You Should Visit Digital Artist Maxim Zhestkov's London Exhibition

The best way to get to grips with the fast-moving evolution of digital artworks is to dive in head first. A new exhibition in the basement space of London's W1 Curates invites visitors to do just that. Walls undulating with digital wave systems created by the artist Maxim Zhestkov meditate quite literally on the ever-changing, moving landscape of virtual creativity, blurring the lines between what we conceive to be natural and 'real' forms, and the digital.

Breaking beyond the confines of traditional pictorial art forms, contained within a frame, Zhestkov's installation work Waves crashes over the walls of the interior space and out onto the three floors of the facade of the FLANNELS building, where the W1 Curates space is currently housed. These LED screens, visible to passersby, also suggest a more democratically functioning art gallery system in the metaverse.

Taking natural elements as his starting point, the artist then creates what he terms 'digital sculptures' to explore the changing behaviours of different forms. Waves, more specifically, ruminates on shifts in energy, thinking about the disruptive and merging forces of these universal symbols of nature as they oscillate. The installation at W1 Curates will be Zhestkov's first site-specific work of this scale, having previously exhibited at the Decentral Art Pavilion Venice, ArtBasel Miami and Contemporary Istanbul, amongst other international events, also collaborating with brands including adidas and Playstation.

'It is fascinating how structures could be assembled by themselves, following the basic underlying rules of our world. Any material, including living matter, forms using the same set of rules, and I think that this is something that we take for granted, but it is truly astonishing when you think about it.' - Maxim Zhestkov.

Waves opens to the public on 18 August 2022.