Painting, 1929–2008
Riga 2025
Artist: Filip Shalaev
Curators: Alexander Tsvetkov, Viktorija Zaiceva
For Filip Shalaev, the boundary between human and animal was never a division but a mirror. His tigers and wolves look at us as equals, revealing dignity, fatigue, loyalty, and a living presence that reflects our own inner states. From factory workshops to the artist’s studio, Shalaev followed an inner calling that defied circumstance. Guided by Latvian painter Uldis Zemzaris, he developed a unique voice within naïve art—without academic training, yet with a profound instinct for form and empathy. Shalaev painted animals with the same reverence others reserved for heroes, and portrayed people with the elemental sincerity of the natural world. In his work, humans and animals share one continuum of experience, challenging the notion of separation and anticipating today’s animal studies, where the animal is understood as a subject rather than an object. A pivotal moment shaped his vision: after feeling pity for a bird he had hunted, Shalaev abandoned violence and turned fully to art. His paintings became a quiet movement from destruction toward compassion. Shalaev’s art is decorative yet philosophical, naïve yet deeply aware. His wolves carry both strength and sorrow; his people hold traces of animal dignity. He serves as a mediator between worlds—reason and instinct, the industrial and the natural—reminding us that humanity is not a privilege of our species, but the ability to recognize ourselves in the gaze of another living being.
Artist: Filip Shalaev
Curators: Alexander Tsvetkov, Viktorija Zaiceva
For Filip Shalaev, the boundary between human and animal was never a division but a mirror. His tigers and wolves look at us as equals, revealing dignity, fatigue, loyalty, and a living presence that reflects our own inner states. From factory workshops to the artist’s studio, Shalaev followed an inner calling that defied circumstance. Guided by Latvian painter Uldis Zemzaris, he developed a unique voice within naïve art—without academic training, yet with a profound instinct for form and empathy. Shalaev painted animals with the same reverence others reserved for heroes, and portrayed people with the elemental sincerity of the natural world. In his work, humans and animals share one continuum of experience, challenging the notion of separation and anticipating today’s animal studies, where the animal is understood as a subject rather than an object. A pivotal moment shaped his vision: after feeling pity for a bird he had hunted, Shalaev abandoned violence and turned fully to art. His paintings became a quiet movement from destruction toward compassion. Shalaev’s art is decorative yet philosophical, naïve yet deeply aware. His wolves carry both strength and sorrow; his people hold traces of animal dignity. He serves as a mediator between worlds—reason and instinct, the industrial and the natural—reminding us that humanity is not a privilege of our species, but the ability to recognize ourselves in the gaze of another living being.
