Denis Ichitovkin was born in 1977 in the city of Perm, Russia.

In 2001 graduated from State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin of Russian Academy of Arts (mural painting department, studio of A.A. Mylnikov). Later in 2003 he finished here post-graduate studies.
Active participant of exhibition projects of Russian and European museums, galleries and other exhibition spaces.
Works by D. Itchitovkin are a part of private collections of Russia, France, USA, the Netherlands, the UK, Museum of Contemporary Art “Erarta” (St. Petersburg, Russia).

His first attempts in painting and studies in the city art studios are closely connected with this city. Denis paved his further way to Saint Petersburg, where during 1995-2001 he was studying the profession of the muralist in Saint Petersburg Academic Institute of painting, sculpture and architecture named after I.E. Repin, specializing and growing up under the wing of the honored Russian artist A.A. Mylnikov.
In these years Denis determined for himself the “light houses” in the art sea. Among his compatriots they were Tatyana Nazarenko and Dmitriy Zhilinskiy. But it was the Dutch art that made the strongest influence on the young artist’s search of his individual style and subject. Its poetizing of “the middle man” life and its attention and even passion to the subject world to a dot appeared to be contemporary to the author.
Before Denis determined for himself the vector of his own art development in terms of these personal favors and found his today art-niche in the spirit of the social photorealism he had got the serious painting practice. The mural fresco painting has the special place here. The artist appeared to be the participant of works in The Cathedral of Christ the Savior (Moscow, 1999); he also made copies from frescos of the church in Vesyimy in Moscow region (1999), later he worked under creating the sketches and their implementation in The Cathedral of Saint Blessed Duke Alexander Nevskiy in Ust-Izhora (2000-2001).

 In Denis’s creativity storage one can discover almost a series of portraits. Among the most remarkable ones we could mark the following interesting portraits out: “Tiredness” (2004), “In the kitchen” (2005), “The morning tea” (2005), all of them contently appeal to lyrical and existential refleхion.

 Interior – is a special subject in the painter’s work, Denis was fascinated by it as early as in the student years. The permanent appeal to this genre in terms of search of his own theme developed into the series of works. One could at once remember these works by the extreme bareness of the characters depicted, by the precise and careful approach in reflection of details which being fragmented could compose the independent pieces because of the significant sense message. No doubt that the appeal to the large interior painting is connected with emotional perception of the certain conditions of author’s everyday life mixed with the interest to the Dutch art and deep emotional impression caused by the numerous visits to Holland as a participant of festivals and exhibitions.

The question – if the artist continues to develop the line which he represents to us in a form of depiction in terms of hyper- and photorealism or not, stays open but Denis Itchitovkin continues to work hard. The nearest time he plans to move forward the actual art keeping the previous discoveries with him.

Larisa Malashevskaya  
Art critic