YURY VELIKOTSKY

Was born in 1958 in the town of Podolsk, Moscow Region. In 1980 he graduated from Kaliningrad Naval College. He started to work with amber in 1979. He lives in the town of Baltiysk. Today he is an artist in the «Baltic Souvenirs» company.

Yury Velikotsky began his creative activity by producing the coats of arms of East Prussian towns. Afterwards he began making sculptures. He created the series of miniature figurine «Merry monks», carved animals, fairy beings and historic characters. The artist fully understands the essence of the Baltic gem and its plastic potential aiming to create generalized, abstract images. In the middle of the 1990s he started to make amber icons. Velikotsky specially studied Orthodox canons, he thoroughly sorted out the color spectrum of amber, he used laconic carving. His images are majestic and at the same time humble. They radiate warmth but at the same time they make us think of the transitory nature of secular life. Yu. Velikotsky belongs to rather a rare type of artist whose works one wants to scrutinize for a long time, to delve into the details, to touch, and subsequently to return to them again and again.