Leonid Tishkov

The intensely personal stories of Leonid Tishkov’s (b.1951) past weave in and around the mystical narratives and fairytale characters that feature prominently in his work. Tishkov trained as a doctor, practicing medicine briefly as a specialist in gastroenterology, before embarking on a career in art. Tishkov has created a world of images and objects that help him record and preserve the memory and presence of those close to him, particularly his mother and family members. He wraps these memories in an archive that includes his dreams and impressions of himself as a character swaying in the motion of life. Strange quasi-medical organs appear throughout his work as knitted or stuffed objects, or as described in his comic book graphics, in the form of the “Dabloids”- weird, red unipeds that inhabit his surreal world.