Almost all paintings are part of some collection. They share elements and themes with other pieces from that certain time period.
A collection born mostly on lonesome nights in the atelier. Isolation was a key to getting in touch with my emotions and most of the works were done 2-5 times before calling them complete. That mean scraping off the oil and starting with new layers on top. In addition the finising layers often times had emotional scrapings on top.
I don’t paint scenes; I paint states of feeling. Every mark—knife-gouged line, spray haze, finger-smeared oil—records the emotion moving through me in that moment. When the surface finally crackles, the piece is finished and my mood is spent. From then on, the canvas belongs to you.
Beginning in 2019, I started hunting for a voice—oil only, pushing cubism into raw expressionism until the shapes felt mine. By 2021 I knew what a Sannikov canvas should look like: deep, layered colour planes scraped and rebuilt until they almost hummed. 2022 made me bolder; I mixed fast-drying spray with slow-drying oil so I could carve, smear and revisit the surface in one session. Oil only paintings became history at the start of 2023, which was dedicated to black-and-white. Even a couple of spray-only pieces emerged—proof that raw emotion can live in simplicity. 2024 pulled every lesson together: bright, large-format works where dense oil textures and quick spray gestures clash and click inside the same frame.
Collectors tell me a Sannikov painting keeps changing. What looked like joy last year might read as restlessness today, because the work isn’t a picture on the wall; it’s a mirror of the soul that shifts with your own seasons. That open-ended dialogue is why I stay self-taught and border-free. I refuse the safety rails of any academy or regional “style.”
My only rule: be honest, be bold, be alive.
Showcasing my commitment to strength sports and media recognition in the creative field.
Official sponsor of the World's Strongest Man series for the Estonian event. Supporting elite athletes in their pursuit of greatness through financial contributions and artistic collaborations that showcase the intersection of strength and creativity.
My sponsorship was a small contribution to bring the first ever Estonia event to reality, support our own athletes and bring more awareness to the sport as Estonian strongmen are in the top of the world.
Estonian National (ETV+) art segment in "Horisont" (2023) showcased my exhibition "19" opening, featuring the "Old Town Nights 21" collection to 200,000+ viewers across Estonia.
• "El Chapo" — Rüütli 9, Tartu (2024)
• "Veg Machine" — Aparaaditehas, Tartu (2022)
