Artist Feature: Dima Rebus
"I try to draw irony to such things as social behavior."
From a small factory town in Russia, one that Dima Rebus compares lightly to Detroit; grey, poverty stricken, single-industry with lots of crime; art became his greatest outlet. He began sharing his work by brightening the gloomy cityscapes with graffiti art, becoming increasing dedicated to the street art culture, he soon began exploring other mediums through his studies and now primarily works with watercolor.
Better known as a watercolorist, his artwork is characterized by a high degree of absurdity and irony, dealing with social issues. Through delicate technique, he brings balance to the vulnerability of the subjects.
“Of course, some of my works are based on the events that surround me. But this does not mean that I paint political cartoons for the morning papers or what I see in news feed. My events are of a larger scale. I try to draw irony to such things as social behavior. I laugh at all pretentious norms, habits, basis and other mind traps. For example, in my work “They Used to Share the Laundry Box,” I smile at complicated relationships in the family of a pigeon and Melanie.”
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Dima Rebus (1988) was born in a small town in Russia and graduated from the Moscow Art and Industry Institute in 2011. His illustrations, watercolors, and street-art have been exhibited in Moscow, Belgium, Argentina, and Saint Petersburg. He works on a wide array of projects ranging from his personal catalog of works to illustrations for magazines and various publishing houses including Clever, National Geographic, Esquire, GQ, and Bang-Bang. He currently lives and works in New York.