Russian street artist Slava Ptrk sums up four years abroad: ‘Unwanted There / Unwanted Here’
One of Russia’s best-known street artists, Slava Ptrk (Stanislav Komissarov), posted an Instagram photo of a new work exploring his own experience in exile. Komissarov left Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Russian authorities designated him a “foreign agent.” The work, “Ne nuzhen tam / Ne nuzhen tut” (“Unwanted There / Unwanted Here”), is also called “Promezhutochnye itogi chetyrekh let emigratsii” (“Four Years in Exile: An Interim Assessment”). It consists of two signs styled like bus stop signs on opposite sides of the E22 highway near Yekaterinburg, his hometown. Ptrk has reimagined urban fixtures, including road signs, in previous works. In one of his best-known works, he turned a sewer grate across from the Kremlin into prison bars. In June, another sign appeared in Yekaterinburg beneath a road sign bearing the city’s name. It read “I Miss You.”
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