This Russian Artist Draws Your Most Unsettling Nightmares

Vergvoktre uses ink and paint to create ghostly images of hell, or some place nextdoor to hell. And that’s everything I know about him, all gleaned from his blog. But I wanted to know more so I sent an email, requesting an interview. And Vergvoktre wrote back to tell me that “an interview is needless and it will produce nothing informative.”

It wasn’t a good reply… but it was also the perfect reply. An illustration of his had appeared in my feed and I’d been instantly captivated by its creepy ambiguousness, and the fact there was almost nothing on the internet about the man who’d produced it. It was the kind of nasty little rendering that the girl in The Ring might have made in her well, only it was in real life. So I pushed for an interview and Vergvoktre finally sent me some incredibly vague answers via email. So vague, in fact, that I now know less about him than I did before.

So look, the below Q&A is short and utterly non-illuminating, but it does kind of add to the guy’s mystique. Because what do you really want from an artist who specialises in visualising macabre corners of the subconscious? Well, you’d want him to be mysterious.

VICE: Hey Vergvoktre can you tell me a bit about yourself. How old are you?
Vergvoktre: I’m Russian. I’m male. I’m above the age of the majority.

How did you get into painting? Did you study fine arts?
I think I’m still illiterate, particularly in arts.

What are your pictures of?
They depict my views, opinions, and attitudes to something.

What do you find so attractive about the macabre?
My understanding of macabre is different, so I find nothing attractive or repulsive about it.

Where do your ideas come from? They look like nightmares to me.
That’s a long story.

What are you afraid of?
It depends on the situation and circumstances.

What are you angry about?
This is anger for anger [sic].

There’s not much about you on the internet. Why is that?
I don’t consider it necessary to upload excess information which distracts attention.

This underwhelming interview was by Julian Morgans. All images by Vergvoktre