Qjay

Lyokha Qjay's practice combines the language of comics, graffiti and post-internet aesthetics in a piercingly sincere and precisely built visual narrative about everyday life.

Qjay started with street walls and zines, gradually building his own system of images and stories in which the absurd borders on despair and social satire is inseparable from personal candour. His alter ego, a cartoon monkey, becomes a chorus figure through which the artist explores fragments of everyday life, both personal and cultural.

Lyokha deliberately avoids the vocabulary of "contemporary art" in favour of a language grounded in street aesthetics, teenage folklore and a longing for utopian sincerity. His works balance between vulnerability and protest, humour and existential themes, while remaining tied to the context of the post-Soviet generation. It is less a commentary on that environment than a system of observation working from inside it.

Recent projects include the solo exhibitions SAMO PO SEBE (Most Wanted, 2023–2024), QOMIX ZONE (SAGA, 2024) and KUDZHEYNAYA (Most Wanted / Cube Moscow, 2022), and participation in group shows at the Museum of Moscow, the JART and Q ART galleries and the Ural Industrial Biennial. Qjay's works have been shown at the CATALOG and COSMOSCOW fairs, Comic Arts Brooklyn and other international events. He has collaborated with FRANK by Basta, SneakerBox, TXC / Seemee and the Shhh brand, creating comics, merchandise and graphics.