Dima Rebus

Dima Rebus (Russian: Дима Ребус) is a contemporary Russian artist.
He creates paintings, installations and sculptures, while exploring the process of chemical transformation of materials. He is well known as the founder of Underground Aquarellka Universe, which focuses on human behavioral biology and the evolution of everyday norms of its existence.
Participant of numerous biennials of young contemporary art. Personal and group exhibitions have been held in international museums and galleries. Works in London (UK) and Moscow (Russia).
Dima Rebus was born on June 2, 1988, in Naberezhnye Chelny, Soviet Union. The early career path of the artist was associated with the rapid development of street art in the early 2010s. At the time, Rebus managed to balance his studies at Moscow Art and Industry Institute and his job as an editorial illustrator in the publishing houses of Esquire, Psychologies, GQ. He has also collaborated with such TV channels as National Geographic Channel (US), Canal + (France). For several years, he illustrated a column for the magazine Total Football. In 2012, he created illustrations for a children's book series "Andersen's Magic Rebus". Dima’s first exhibition "The Schtick" was held in Moscow in 2011 at the Center for Creative Industries "Fabrika". In the spring of 2014, he took part in the exhibition "Casus Pacis/Motive for Peace" as a part of the parallel program of the "Manifesta 10" European Biennale of Contemporary Art. During this group exhibition, Russian and Ukrainian artists united to oppose the military conflict which took place in Ukraine at that time, so their works were dedicated to the early establishment of peaceful relations between Russia and Ukraine. In the summer of 2014, he presented the exhibition "Insomnia" at the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. And at the end of 2014, he organized a solo exhibition that took place in Brussels (Belgium) at YawnArt (Artwin Gallery). In 2016, Rebus participated in the 5th International Biennale for Young Art, presenting his "Good Deal" project. Within this biennale he was provided with an opportunity to cover a full building at the Trekhgornaya manufactory to make it an object for street-art, so he ‘packed’ the facade of this building in painted polythene film. In 2017, he was invited by Goethe-Institut (Berlin) to take part in an exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. Within the framework of the exhibition, Rebus presented his project "Life Goes On" that represented a wall made of several hundred oil barrels, with depicted faces on every barrel; thus, the whole installation embodied a revolutionary mob.
The artist was a contestant at numerous international contemporary art fairs, including Art Central (Hong Kong), Art Dubai (Dubai), Blazar (Moscow), Cosmoscow (Moscow). Rebus’ watercolor art pieces were represented on the albums’ covers of a Russian composer Mikhail Mishchenko. He also designed the cover art for Noize MC's tenth album,"Exit to City" in 2021.
Rebus is best known for his large-format watercolors created on the basis of chemical solutions that he developed on his own. The pH level of rainwater varies and has different values depending on the environmental conditions in each location. The artist relies on this data when working with pigment granulation, and the completed watercolor canvases represent full-fledged topographic maps made from collected precipitation from different countries and regions. Dima’s complex painting approach combines the aesthetics of abstract and figurative techniques. The overall stylistics of his works includes references to well-known scientific phenomena alongside involuntary mysticism, retaining a general state of suspense. One of the main focuses of his artistic practice is aimed to develop issues of adaptive norms and the distinctive evolution of their settings in modern society.