Besides 45 canvases spanning Marilyn Monroe in an Elizabethan-era costume to goddess Lakshmi flanked by two bejewelled elephants, what made visitors — including theatre veteran Dolly Thakore — pause at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) last Monday evening was their own floating reflection. As they passed an AI-powered “neuro-mirror” that transformed their image into a painted, drifting version of themselves, phones rose instinctively. The art, quite literally, was watching them back.Dream Vision, a major non-commercial solo exhibition by the Russian artist Nikas Safronov, was inaugurated in Mumbai on Dec 29. “I often see how different people experience the same painting in completely different ways,” says Safronov, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation. “That’s when I understood: a painting is a mirror. The artist’s responsibility is to be careful and honest, not to manipulate emotions, but to leave space for personal inner experience.”The Mumbai edition follows an unprecedented New Delhi run that drew an estimated 5.6 lakh visitors in just 14 days — among the largest international art exhibitions India has witnessed in decades. “New Delhi gave us a record that will become part of my personal history,” says Safronov, who is expected in Mumbai for the closing ceremony. “Mumbai has a special aura… creativity, cinema and fashion pulse through the city. I believe the audience here is more sophisticated.” The exhibition, supported by Rosneft Oil Company, is their joint “New Year’s gift to India”.Spread across 45 works, the exhibition traces Safronov’s evolution from classical realism and symbolism into his signature Dream Vision style — a fusion of philosophy, subconscious imagery and emotional realism, amplified through immersive multimedia, spatial sound design and subtle AI elements that make visitors feel as if they are stepping inside the canvas. A special set design has been created for NGMA, tailored to the architecture of the UNESCO-listed building.Yet for the artist — who grew up drawing castles and knights in Ulyanovsk and whose calling was sealed by a dream in which Leonardo da Vinci handed him a glowing sphere — technology remains secondary. “Technology can enhance perception, but it cannot feel. It doesn’t doubt, fear or carry lived experience. And it is precisely doubt and vulnerability that make an artist human.”Recognised globally for his role in contemporary art and cultural diplomacy, Safronov has painted professionally since 1973 and created over 50 portraits of heads of state, including Narendra Modi, Donald Trump and Pope Francis. In 2025, his global standing was reinforced when Pope Francis received him at the Vatican and blessed his international exhibition programme. His works now reside in major museums and private collections worldwide. Safronov’s philosophy resists the speed of contemporary life. “I was never interested only in how the world looks, but in how it feels. Dreams are honest… a painting doesn’t demand a reaction. It waits.”India occupies a special section in the show, featuring Varanasi’s ghats, the Taj Mahal from the Yamuna, the Bara Imambara in Lucknow and a host of gods and goddesses. “Indian art affected me deeply — through colour, depth and the sacred in everyday life. Here, tradition and technology coexist without destroying each other”. If he were to paint India’s cities, he says, his approach would be psychological. “I’d paint Delhi as a memory, Mumbai as movement and energy. Not the city itself, but the emotions it leaves behind.”Earlier this year, his portrait of Trump was presented as a gift from Vladimir Putin. “It was not politics — it was a quiet conversation between art and history.” Of Modi, he recalls a striking stillness: “He doesn’t speak unnecessarily. That speaks of dignity.” Even power, he insists, is compelling only when it reveals vulnerability. As AI art, NFTs and social-media aesthetics flood the market, Safronov remains wary. “Trends pass. Genuine feeling remains. When art becomes only an investment tool, it loses its soul.” The world, he believes, still needs beauty. “The pursuit of beauty today is not an escape. It is resistance. It reminds us that we are still alive, still capable of feeling.”
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