Contemporary art captivates us so strongly for several paradoxical reasons: a) we simultaneously understand and do not understand how it is done; b) it is infinitely far and infinitely close to us; c) it is connected to our personal unique experience and makes us experience the personal unique, unimaginable, inexpressible experience of the artist. Artists fascinate us because they are both us and not us. The most influential artists balance on the border of immanence and transcendence in relation to the viewer (personally to me). This art of balance (not excluding technical mastery, ethical and political stance, and artistic strategy) is an important measure, an important indicator, and an important marker that distinguishes the personalities of unique individual artists.

An astounding example of an outstanding artistic personality skillfully balancing on the border of coincidence with the viewer and the hermetic nature of artistic selfhood can be called Aslan Tsallati. Aslan is a contemporary figurative artist from North Ossetia who skillfully combines the aesthetics of minimalism, expressionism, and surrealism in his art, united by the flow of his personal artistic language. His works can be described as disturbing, provocative, dark, poly-stylistic, full of cross-cultural references, ironic, using retro-stylization, and various symbolic and sign systems. The artist gravitates towards centripetal compositions and uses a deliberately dirty color palette to achieve the desired artistic effect: to connect viewers to a sharp sense of the in-between, a sharp awareness of rifts between worlds.

Aslan’s main technique is the bold blending of various, often opposite contexts (worlds) in the semantic field of a single painting. In the «Alone with myself» artwork, a whole series of internal images or personifications of human despair are presented, resolved in different styles (masterfully appropriated by the artist). This poly-stylistic painting appears as if it was painted by several different artists, working in different eras, yet the incredible unity of the artwork prevents these images from disintegrating into separate, unrelated elements. Images of human despair are presented in a super-primitive aesthetic, in the aesthetics of illustrations for fantastic American novels of the 1970s and 1980s, and in the aesthetics of late German post-expressionism.

In the «Creation» artwork, the artist blends images of Christian iconography and clichéd conspiratorial symbols in a cauldron of medieval aesthetics, and the attire of the central character alludes to both the traditional attire of a Catholic bishop and the uniform of inhabitants of shelters from the video game franchise Fallout. The artist here acts as a reconciler of worlds, overcoming hierarchies and traditional dichotomies of «high and low», «sacred and profane». For him, the act of creation is an act of contemplating chaos. Aslan Tsallati is remarkably text-centric as an artist, and it is important for him to convey to us conscious, articulated conclusions. For us, as viewers, it is undoubtedly valuable to engage with an artist who does not hide behind the veil of false complexity and enigma. With this approach, Aslan undoubtedly enriches and reinvents contemporary art as a set of contemporary communication practices between people and as a set of methods for inventing ways to be human in an inhuman era.

Despite his young age, Aslan is a sought-after contemporary artist with international recognition. His works have been exhibited and published in many countries around the world and are also held in private collections. I highly recommend that you familiarise yourself with the art of Aslan Tsallati if you have not already done so. Experience the unique!

Jenya Stashkov, art critic, artist

Sheffield, UK