Nikolai Stepanovich Safronov (Nikas)
People's Artist of the Russian Federation, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, professor and dean of the Faculty of Culture and Art at Ulyanovsk State University, and professor of the Department of Drawing and Painting at the Kosygin Russian State University.
Today he is the most widely known and in-demand contemporary artist in Russia.
Nikas Safronov's artistic career began in 1978, when his first solo exhibition was organized in Panevezys, Lithuania. Since then, his reputation as a vivid symbolist, portraitist, and experimenter has grown from one exhibition to the next and from one creative project to another. Nikas introduced a new direction in painting called Dream Vision, based on the imagery of classical art combined with visions on the threshold between sleep and awakening.
In the last ten years alone, the master has held more than 320 solo exhibitions around the world. In 2025, after meeting Pope Francis, who blessed Nikas to build bridges between nations, Safronov announced the launch of a large-scale international project in cultural diplomacy. As part of that project, Dream Vision exhibitions by Nikas Safronov were held in India, in New Delhi and Mumbai, from December 2025 to January 2026. The exhibitions became the most visited cultural event there in the past sixty years.
Works by Nikas Safronov are held in many Russian museums, including the Hermitage, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, and the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia. They are also found in private collections belonging to celebrities such as Jack Nicholson, Madonna, Meryl Streep, Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Montserrat Caballe, Luciano Pavarotti, Elton John, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and many other world stars.
Over the course of his career, he has painted portraits of more than fifty presidents and monarchs around the world. One of the latest works in this series, a portrait of Donald Trump, was presented to the American president through his representative Steven Witkoff in 2025.
For his achievements in the arts, Nikas Safronov has received an official commendation from the President of the Russian Federation. He is the laureate of the International Pushkin Prize in the Art. Painting category (2024, Italy) and the winner of the national Dean of the Year award (2024). He has repeatedly been honored with Gold Medals of the Academy of Arts and honorary titles in CIS countries.
Nikas has also received many awards from the Russian Orthodox Church, public honors, and letters of gratitude for his creative work and many years of charitable activity.
