Russian street artist Slava Ptrk marks four years in exile with new roadside work

Slava Ptrk, the pseudonym of Russian street artist Stanislav Komissarov, has shared a new work on Instagram that reflects on his own experience of living abroad. Komissarov left Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, and Russian authorities have since designated him a "foreign agent."

The new piece is titled "Ne nuzhen tam / Ne nuzhen tut" — "Unwanted There / Unwanted Here" — and carries an alternate title, "Promezhutochnye itogi chetyrekh let emigratsii," meaning "Four Years in Exile: An Interim Assessment."

Twin signs along the highway

The work consists of two signs designed to look like bus stop markers, installed on opposite sides of the E22 highway near Yekaterinburg, the city where Komissarov grew up.

Reimagining ordinary urban infrastructure, including road signs, is a recurring approach in Ptrk's work. One of his most recognized pieces transformed a sewer grate located across from the Kremlin into what resembled prison bars.

This is not the artist's first intervention in Yekaterinburg's streetscape touching on the theme of exile. In June, another sign appeared in the city beneath a road sign bearing its name, reading simply, "I Miss You."