"Ode to Russian Winter" by Evgeny Ladygin

On December 19 at 3:00 PM, Moscow-based graphic artist Evgeny Ladygin’s first solo exhibition in Pskov, "Ode to Russian Winter," will open. Visitors will be able to see his works from various years in a retrospective, spanning from the 1990s to the present. The exhibition will be open until January 19, 2026, in the exhibition hall of the V.Ya. Kurbatov Pskov Regional Universal Scientific Library, located at 2 Profsoyuznaya Street, Pskov.

Visitors will be able to begin their acquaintance with the artist’s work with early academic-style drawings, featuring Evgeny’s signature soft pen and ink line drawing. These works are distinguished by his own technical development — a specially dried ink and the use of a fine steel nib, which gives the ordinary drawing a soft quality and surpasses the fineness of an etching needle in the fineness of its lines.

The exhibition also features color graphics in the artist’s signature style, "Pen Painting." These paintings are distinguished by their original graphic interpretation of classic watercolor techniques. In Evgeny Ladygin’s color drawings, the graphics are saturated with colors — sometimes rich, sometimes soft, and sometimes decorative — approaching painting, while paper of various shades becomes a fully fledged medium for realizing creative ideas. At the exhibition, you can see realistic and decorative works executed on tinted paper in monochrome and full color, including those from the "Green Winter" series. It would seem that there are no greater antagonists than green and white snow, but in the artist’s works, they are interwoven into a seamless whole, creating an original image that beautifully captures the spirit of the Russian winter.

The exhibition also features works dedicated to Pskov, part of the extensive "Pskov Series," which comprises over 500 drawings in various styles. A more complete presentation of this series to Pskov residents is planned for 2026, with an exhibition of portraits of actors from the Pskov Drama Theater, marking World Theatre Day.