OZYMANDIAS
Ozymandias is a small watercolor series reflecting on time, memory, and the fragile endurance of ideas. Inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, the project explores what remains when power, ambition, and certainty are eroded — and what, unexpectedly, survives.
These works do not illustrate the poem.
They respond to it — quietly, materially, and without spectacle.
Concept. Shelley’s Ozymandias speaks of ruins, of vanished authority, of human certainty dissolved by time. This project shifts the focus from collapse to persistence.
Not monuments, but fragments. Not statements, but traces.
Figures, architectural elements, animals, and anonymous forms appear partially erased, unstable, as if caught between emergence and disappearance. The watercolor medium — fluid, unforgiving, impossible to fully control — becomes an essential part of the meaning.
Nothing here claims permanence. And yet, something remains.
Prices range from £260 to £420, depending on the individual piece.
Medium & Approach. Watercolor was chosen deliberately.
Unlike oil, it does not allow correction without consequence. Every decision leaves a visible trace. Every hesitation remains part of the image.
The works are painted in a restrained, limited palette, emphasizing structure, rhythm, and tonal relationships rather than surface detail. The gesture is economical; the image resists completion.
What matters is not depiction, but presence.
acid-free cold press paper of
premium quality.
The materials are selected for longevity and stability over time.
The Series. The project consists original watercolor works, unified by scale, approach, and conceptual framework. Each work can exist independently, but the series functions as a single statement — a meditation on time seen from different angles.
The project is offered as:
individual works, or a coherent group for a single collection
Availability is limited.
About the Artist. Andrey Novikov is a contemporary artist working across painting, printmaking, and drawing.
His practice often explores imagined civilizations, memory structures, and the tension between cultural ambition and human fragility.
His work has been presented at:
- Royal Watercolour Society (Open exhibition)
- Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (curated section)
- His artist book is held in the New York Public Library research collection.
- In 2025, he received the Artworks Open Prize (Barbican Arts Group Trust).
Acquisition
Selected works from Ozymandias are available to private collectors.
For availability, pricing, or to arrange a private viewing (online or in person), please enquire directly.
This is not a project about loss.
It is about what quietly resists disappearance.
