"New Beginning" (2024) Original Acrylic Painting by Nina Grigel

Acrylic, gold leaf, silkscreen on canvas
We (people of planet Earth) are creating a new, better world — but we still haven't managed to create a new, better human being. Yet we will not stop trying, because if we grow tired, it will all have been in vain.

Believing in something better, creating something beautiful — that is certainly within our power.

My personal symbol of a beginning is a blank sheet of paper or pieces of clay kneaded by the hands of a creator. If something goes wrong — we will start all over again. Art will not save the world, but it will make it better, give it hope.

Series: Progressorship
Project – Study

The theme of progressorship has fascinated me since my youth, from the time I first read the Strugatsky brothers, who introduced this concept to the world.

According to the Strugatskys, progressors are representatives of highly developed intelligent races whose duty is to facilitate the historical progress of civilizations at a lower stage of social development. In other words, progressors are those people/humanoids who impose their worldview on weaker civilizations. This may come in the form of gifts of new knowledge, new technologies, or the genetic endowment of superpowers to their charges. At the same time, the recipient civilizations most likely lose their identity and distinctive features.

Is this really necessary for the more backward civilizations? Wouldn't it be better for them to progress at their own pace, in their own time? Are worlds created like carbon copies — even if intelligent, high-tech, and humane — truly needed?

If we examine this theory through the lens of world history and relate it to the various events that have taken place on our planet across different time periods, the influence of "progressors" runs through them as a constant and persistent red thread. For example, the imposition of one's own "world order" by more developed countries upon third-world nations under the motto: "Happiness for everyone — and let no one be left offended."

In this project, I invite the viewer to reflect: do we/they need progressors? Is external influence always justified? I do not provide answers — I raise questions for discussion. I open a portal to a problematic that lies adjacent to an interdisciplinary approach to understanding this theme.

Selected Exhibitions
2025–2026 – Solo Exhibition at Naprotiv Gallery
2025 – SberUniversity "New Horizons", Moscow Region
2024 – "A Word About the Russian Heart" Festival, Beijing
2024 – ArtExpo New York 2024, New York
2024 – La Pigna Gallery, Rome
2024 – ArtPlay Moscow, Kvartiras Gallery, Moscow
2024 – Pavlodar City Museum, Kazakhstan
2023 – Shanghai International Art Fair (SIAF), Shanghai
2023 – "Zdes na Taganke" Gallery, Moscow
2022 – ArtDom, Winzavod, Moscow
2021 – Kibart, Moscow
2021 – International Exhibition Competition of Futuristic Art, Moscow
2021 – Artplay, Moscow
2021 – Finalist, Russian Art Awards, Moscow House of Artists, Moscow
2021 – International Exhibition "SCOLKOVO Plaza ArtShow", Moscow
2021 – Art Cosmos, Evraziya Gallery, Moscow
2021 – Online Exhibition & Competition "Sbornaya Solianka", Alipova Gallery
Collections
2023 – Lucy Chebotina Charity Auction, Private Collection
Publications
Art MUSE Magazine – "Art Survey" column, 2024, Issue No. 18

Materials used:

Acrylic, gold leaf, silkscreen on canvas

Details:

• Acrylic painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 60 x 60cm (unframed)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the front
• Style: Unspecified
• Subject: Architecture and cityscapes