Oleg Dou (born 1983) is one of the most prominent representatives of contemporary Russian photography on the world art scene. He gained fame thanks to large-format portraits in which faces are depicted like frozen masks completely devoid of emotions. In those portraits, the artist addresses the topic of his own fear of a staged photograph that tormented him in childhood. Dou's art is so intensely personal, that the creation of the artwork for him is akin to therapeutic act.
This tendency of total devotion to the inner world can also be traced in small porcelain sculpture, which Oleg Dou turned to recently. The artist ponders on the subjects of cruelty, internal struggle, and choice. In addition to photography and sculpture, Oleg Dou makes video art, in which he incorporates a staple characteristic of his art style: the motive of struggle - first of all, with oneself. But here, too, beauty, restraint and conciseness are the main tools in the artist's arsenal. Oleg Dou reinterprets main concepts of academism in his own way.