Art as Business Interview: Viktor Timofeev

Viktor Timofeev, HEXAGONAL_HOLLOW_HILLS enamel, acrylic on canvas. 125cm x 190cm

How would you describe your art?

I am really interested in specific world-making, working in painting and drawing. I like to borrow from architectural fantasy, history of virtual space, and this kind of quest for a utopian place to live in. The way humans are supposed to interact with this kind of rendered space is also particularly interesting to me.

Viktor Timofeev, 192.128.7.1 [OST_LAN] ink on paper. 27.8cm x 47.4cm

Do you make a living out of your art and related practices – or do you combine it with another job?

I have been combining it with other non-related jobs for a number of years but only recently was able to fully survive with art related work.

How long have you been working professionally as an artist? 

I guess this depends on what being a professional means in this question. If its selling work starting with what you consider your first mature works, then about five years. If you define being professional on the other hand as living entirely off of art-making, then about one year.

Viktor Timofeev, 192.128.3.5 [INTHEFLATFIELD] ink on paper. 28cm x 38cm Viktor Timofeev: work in progress

Have you had a big break? If not; any turning point?

I’m not sure about a break. I don’t know if I believe in such a thing actually. I was lucky enough to be put in touch with the right people early on, but nothing happens overnight. As my work grows, I would hope so does the overall interest in it; but it’s not like one day people all of a sudden turn around and like it. The saying everything takes longer than you expect is really true I think – once you have completed something and know that it’s a great accomplishment, it takes a bit for people to catch up, to see it, to spread it. By that point ideally you’re over it and onto the next thing though. So overall, I guess I prefer the slow and steady rise model versus the overnight thing.

What is your primary client base? 

I work with two galleries, Hannah Barry in London and Schmidt & Handrup in Cologne. I always refer interest to the galleries and don’t work privately with collectors anymore, except if its just a friends kind of thing. I also like to keep my studio pretty empty so that I always have an uncomfortable desire to create - no sitting around and patting yourself on the back while smoking cigarettes.

Describe your work environment. Do you work alone or with others? In a studio or at home? Does this arrangement work for you, and if not, what would your ideal work environment look like?

I’m still searching for that ideal environment. I like to make the best of every situation though, and can also say that my current situation is the best so far. I got used to having a kitchen in my studio a while back, where I can properly cook lunch, breakfast whatever, and not have to bring sandwiches or leave to get lunch. This obviously became a problem because most studios don’t have kitchens or if they do they are communal and shared between a bunch of people working together – the last thing that you want to be doing is making oatmeal while twenty different people come up to make coffee. So I leased a live-work studio. Wake up, roll out of bed and into work. The largest problem became the internet. Having a separation between live and work allows you to separate your internet use, say having it at home and not having it at your studio. In a live work, its not so easy. So what I did initially was dismiss it altogether, for 9 months having no internet, just sort of crashing cafes every once in a while. This increasingly became afunctional – I am still convinced this can work, if you live right next to a café for example, where you pop over in the morning and evening if necessary. But my work dictated more research as well and no longer I could do all of my research in concentrated one hour intervals. So I started a plan with a USB webstick, which gives you a daily as well as monthly bandwidth limit, and is excessively slow. I also use Self Control by Steve Lambert, a program which blocks your access to distracting sites. Ideally though, I would probably sleep elsewhere; maybe just a small room in a shared flat, a room with just a bed and books, nothing else – everything else would be in the studio and the home would just be a place to turn off.

Viktor Timofeev's studio

Do you have a typical workday? How much time do you spend creating and how much on business related activities?

I am trying to avoid “business” related activities as much as possible and relegate those to galleries; after all it’s their job. I care about good business but I don’t care enough to do it – I know what I want to do and I know what I am good at; business isn’t one of them. As long as I can work, I am content. So barring a few emails back and forth, the whole day is spent on the creative process, that is drawing, constructing, painting, scanning, planning.  Taking breaks is essential though, especially in a live work environment. I like to go skate this spot near by house whenever I can and am not injured.

Which marketing strategies have/have not been successful in advancing your career? Or maybe we should call it strategies to become more visible/noticed?

I am not sure I have utilized “strategies” and again not convinced that such a thing should exist in the art world. It begins to sound too much like advertising or marketing. As naïve and simple as it might sound, I believe that you should simply make great, interesting work. No fancy business cards or semantic magic can rescue you when that is not the case. All of your energy should be put into work, not self-promotion. If you build it, they will come.

Viktor Timofeev: street shot

Viktor Timofeev, PATTERN.exe enamel, acrylic on canvas. 120cm x 190cm

Can you share any tips on business organization or financial planning that have worked well for you?

I suppose this is business classic, but also just logic – keep your overheads low. If you can pay your bills, you can spend more time on your work instead of stressing. Whether that means opting for a smaller studio, or buying cheaper potatoes, it’s the same principle. Making monthly budget allotments helps too, prioritizing your purchases, though I have to admit I’m terrible at this.

Do you have any advice on how to rebound emotionally from rejection or difficult client situations?

I got rejected by almost all of the universities I applied to, this was hard to accept. But that is a different kind of rejection. The best thing you can do is just focus on the support. Not everyone will like what you do, and not everyone has to. In fact, it signifies specificity in your work, which is overall a positive trait. There have been some awkward situations where for example a collector will like a work for a reason that is completely the opposite of its intent. You are then put in the position – do you explain yourself and potentially alienate this person from your work, or accept that once your work is out of your studio, it is subject to various interpretations? The latter is obviously the logical answer, though I do have bursts of the former.

Viktor Timofeev: detail, work in progress

Based on your experience, what suggestions or lessons learned would you give to someone starting out as an artist?

If someone is starting out to be an artist, I think it’s important to know your reasons for being involved in the practice. After all is said and done, contemporary discourse discussed, I think there is an x factor that needs to be considered. Work needs to spark you, and you should also spark the work. At least this is what I believe in in my own work.  It needs to excite you, you have to love what you do! There are certain artworks that I can spend time and time again with; that just give me great pleasure. I hope to make this kind of work, so I do think that an artist should be excited about their own practice. Not in a kind of pretensious manner, but basically – if you aren’t excited about it why should other people be?

What would you like to accomplish in 2011?

Everything I am hoping to accomplish in 2011 I am currently working on – the only thing that worries me is that many of the things are beyond my control. I want to push a lot of new “vocabulary” in my work, learn how to make small paintings.. I also really want to get a laptop PC finally so I can stop using Parallels when searching for PC based mods and old games.

Viktor Timofeev, MYY_1 enamel, spray paint on canvas. 80cm x 60cm

What are your long-term career goals as an artist?

Long term goals are probably similar to short term goals if not identical. Keep making work that you are passionate about, and that doesn’t age fast. To “plan” a career is not something you can do I think, mapping out your sad periods or whatever, ahead of time.

Finally:  Can you share something inspiring?

Last Book that got me excited – Masters of Doom, it is a portrait of the founders of id software John Carmack and John Romero. It is thoroughly well researched and extremely entertaining, though you might also need to be partial to this kind of history of gaming to fully get absorbed into it.

Last Film was probably Until The Light Takes Us, a recent documentary about the first-wave Norwegian Black Metal scene. It has in depth interviews with the key members of the scene, including Varg of Burzum speaking from jail. The soundtrack is really amazing actually, a lot of it isn’t metal at all.

Jorinde Voigt is one of the most recent artists I have discovered whose work I really enjoy. Her work has exactly this kind of obsessive x factor characteristic, and is pretty unique. It is also pretty elemental and reduced, while still coming off as complex and loaded, which is a hard balance to pull off!

>> Check Viktor Timofeev's website