About

I’m a musician and video engineer. I’ve painted in oils, and now I make mosaics.

Moscow · one artist

What drew me to mosaic was the way you build an image piece by piece. Instead of drawing a line, you find a shape that fits. Pick a piece of glass, place it beside another, step back and look. Sometimes it works. Sometimes you go back and change it. I work with video, so I especially like being able to hold the result in my hands. It has weight, thickness and an uneven edge. From a distance you see the image. Up close, you see each piece, joint and chip. I’m interested in both. I don’t want mosaic to be limited to ornaments and ancient subjects. It can show an ordinary city courier with a delivery bag, a phone and a tired face. Something familiar from everyday life, made in a different way. NABRANO is just me. I design and make the mosaics, then shoot and edit what I share. Music, video and painting are all part of how I came to mosaic. The name is literal, too. In Russian, nabrano means “assembled” or “set” — the way a mosaic is built, piece by piece.

How it began

I became interested in mosaic when I saw a trencadís piece in the street. I wanted to know how it was made, so I started reading. Then came a workshop and my first pieces. I realised I wanted to keep going and make mosaics of my own.