Roman Muradov's relentlessly inventive illustrative fables

San Fransisco-based, Russian illustrator Roman Muradov is a relentless creative whose work is instantly identifiable despite its breadth. His style has continued to evolve and find new avenues for reinvention since we last featured his work, and last gleefully flipped through one of his books, here at It’s Nice That.

Roman is perhaps most readily recognisable for his illustrated spots (those little drawings that litter the pages of The New Yorker), and his larger editorial work for the likes of The New York Times. Roman explains his process of contribution and response: “I improvise more than necessary and they pick the least deranged ones for publication.”

A man of intense and vivid imagination, he describes his latest work Jacob Bladders and the State of the Art as “a convoluted Pynchonesque detective story exploring the futility of art-making in any time and place.” Entirely hand drawn, he often makes use of painterly ink smudges to form depth in the darkness of its cityscapes and backgrounds.

Another of his most recent efforts, End of a Fence on the other hand, is entirely digital. In part this is a conscious effort of evoking an algorithmic dystopia, in the telling of a fragmented fable of societal segregation through social media.

Roman flits alternately between media and modes of creation. He says: “I get intensely bored the moment I feel fully confident with a style or a medium, which is why I switch around so much.”

High energy and in high demand, Roman Muradov is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. His French debut for Dargaud, titled Aujourd’hui Demain Hier, features 13 different styles in pencil, collage and digital illustration and inspired by George Perec’s Life: A User’s Manual, is due out in August. While he is currently in the early stages of writing his next project: a visual retelling of Noah’s Ark, without Noah… or the Ark.