Sanya Kantarovsky talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Kantarovsky was born in Moscow in 1982 and emigrated to to Providence, Rhode Island, when he was ten years old. He lives and works in New York City today. His paintings present scenarios that are at once arresting and alluring. Notionally figurative, they reflect an elastic notion of how the body might be represented through paint, as figures appear in unlikely juxtaposition with other bodies and beings—even morphing into plant or animal forms—and occupy landscapes and spaces that are always infused with atmosphere and often potent with threat. Sanya regularly uses the term ostranenija, a word in his native Russia that means “making strange”, as a guiding principle. Encountering his art, one is aware of one’s own role in continuing that process: how, after slow-looking, they only grow in complexity. And that richness absorbs many moods and registers, from brutality and solemnity to absurdity and out-and-out humour. He discusses the profound effect of his early access to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and particularly Picasso’s painting Girl on Ball (1905). He reflects on the influence of a huge breadth of historic painters, including Francisco de Goya, Giorgio de Chirico and Philip Guston, discusses his respect for a number of contemporary artists including Trisha Donnelly and Charline von Heyl, and talks about the significance of a number of figures from other disciplines on his work, from the poet Anna Akhmatova and the choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata to the filmmaker Andrei Tarkovksy. Plus, he gives insight into his life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?

Sanya Kantarovsky: Basic Failure, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Palazzo Loredan, Venice, 6 May–22 November

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