drawing in public · marker on paper · Jersey City, NJ
Olek Buzunov
Draws in public: parks, platforms, rehearsals, openings. Not a show, but the process has always drawn a crowd. Timed drawing from life, in marker. Jersey City.
Olek (Alex) Buzunov draws people from life in fast, timed marker sessions.
A pose may last thirty seconds or twenty minutes. He works directly in marker, without preliminary drawing and without erasing. When the pose ends, the drawing ends. Every decision stays on the sheet.
The sessions happen wherever people gather to draw: studios, rehearsals, art schools, openings, parks and other public spaces. The setting changes, but the structure remains simple: a person, a sheet of paper, a marker and a limited amount of time.
Working against the clock is not about speed for its own sake. The time limit removes the possibility of prolonged correction. It forces decisions about gesture, proportion, weight, expression and which lines matter enough to make.
Much of the work has been made in group drawing sessions across New York and Jersey City, including Drawing America, Drawing with Russians at Art D Block, Jersey City Art School, Elevator, Mana Contemporary and the Salmagundi Club.
When Olek draws in public, people often stop to watch. The drawing may take only a few minutes, but nothing is hidden or corrected afterward. The finished sheet remains as a record of that particular pose, model, place and moment.
Since 2017, hundreds of these drawings have accumulated into an ongoing study of the human figure through repetition, observation and constraint.
Olek lives and works in Jersey City. His drawings are held in private collections.
Selected works
61 published works · 7 collections. Every card opens inside the artist's Vibe.
