Konstantin Chmutin - prints and biography

Konstantin Chmutin was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), where he pursued his studies at the Highest School of Civil Engineering before dedicating himself fully to the visual arts. He is a member of the Saint Petersburg Artists Association and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in London, distinctions that reflect both his Russian heritage and his international reputation.

Chmutin has become best known for his mastery of mezzotint, a printmaking technique that demands patience and precision. His works have been featured in solo exhibitions across the United States, Poland, Russia, and Scotland, and he has participated in numerous international print competitions, earning more than ten awards. His prints now reside in over twenty public collections worldwide, including Stanford University and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

What distinguishes Chmutin’s mezzotints is the way he transforms the humblest of subjects into objects of profound visual drama. Eggs, seashells, carrots, and potatoes—rendered on an intimate scale—become vehicles for exploring balance, fragility, and intellectual play. In one image, an egg is perched precariously on the edge of a table, a contrived yet riveting metaphor for equilibrium. In another, an egg stands improbably on its crushed end, an allusion to the story of Christopher Columbus proving the possibility of making an egg stand upright.

His art recalls the intellectual wit of Giuseppe Arcimboldo and the exaggerated forms of Mannerism, with echoes of Tintoretto and El Greco. Chmutin’s mezzotints fuse technical ingenuity with psychological depth, straining form through disproportion, disrupted balance, and unexpected juxtapositions. This interplay between precision and distortion generates a sense of mystery, giving his images the character of visual poetry.

By elevating ordinary objects into metaphors of fragility, resilience, and tension, Konstantin Chmutin has established himself as one of the contemporary masters of mezzotint. His works invite viewers to look beyond surface simplicity and discover complexity, ambiguity, and wonder.