City of Lost Adults: Michael Levius

Entry to the exhibition is ticketed. 
Tickets can be purchased from the gallery reception. 
Standard Ticket: 200 rubles
Concession Ticket: 100 rubles

Anna Nova Gallery of Contemporary Art presents the solo exhibition “City of Lost Adults” by Michael Levius – an exploration of the boundaries between the real and the imagined, the comforting and the unsettling. This new project is a continuation of the artist’s previous exhibition, “Beware!”,presented at pop/off/art gallery in Moscow in 2022.

“City of Lost Adults” invites viewers on a journey through an enigmatic world, inspired by American popular culture and the mysterious aesthetics of 1990s computer games. The project’s title references the game “The City of Lost Children,” which left a lasting impression on the artist during childhood due to its unique atmosphere and pre-storm palette. Its contrast between detailed, static backgrounds and angular, low-polygon characters served as a starting point for the creation of the project.

“And so, years later, I realized that this ‘City of Lost Children’ had grown up with me, transforming into the ‘City of Lost Adults,’” says Michael Levius. The works transport the viewer on an endless stroll through an enclosed world, where identical houses, trees, and figures of people seem to repeat, but each time reveal themselves in a slightly different way.

The exhibition spans two floors and includes several series: paintings on paper, paintings on canvas, graphic works, and a mural. The graphic works capture moments of struggle and doubt, where each stroke leaves a trace of the artist’s interaction with the material. The canvases showcase complex, multi-layered compositions in which aerosol images contrast with the rich textures of the backgrounds.

Michael Levius is a prominent figure in the new generation of figurative painting. His visual language is built on layering and collage: the artist employs a complex system of stencils, superimposing them one on top of another. Drawing inspiration from manga, American horror films, and the popular culture of the 1990s, Levius creates images that balance between realism and fantasy. His works are held in the collections of the Krasnoyarsk Museum Center “Peace Square” and the Sfera Foundation for Contemporary Art.

A public program accompanies the exhibition, featuring a series of mediations, a lecture by Alina Latypova on the spaces of computer games, and a discussion with artist Michael Levius, curator Elizaveta Zakuraeva, and gallery researcher Elizaveta Shikulya about alienation as a new reality.

Project Partner: pop/off/art

Opening Reception Partner: Bakunin Drinks