Philip Colbert poses in front of his artwork at The Gallery Hosu on March 31, 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images for Philip Colbert Studio)

A visitor stands near an art installation portraying China's President Xi Jinping, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin during the ARTSUBS exhibition in Surabaya, Indonesia on August 2, 2025. (Photo by Juni Kriswanto/AFP Photo)

British artist Nnena Kalu's presentation during a press preview for the 2025 Turner Prize at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, Britain, 23 September 2025. The Turner Prize is awarded to a British artist for an outstanding exhibition or presentation during the previous year. The shortlisted artists are Nnena Kalu, Rene Matic, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa. The 2025 Turner Prize is held at Cartwright Hall in recognition of Bradford's status as UK City of Culture 2025. (Photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA)

A detail of "Supersilvio" by Francesco De Molfetta representing the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is displayed during the MiArt 2011 Contemporary and Modern Art International Fair press preview on April 7, 2011 in Milan, Italy.

Sakia Corona, 8, (C) takes part in a rehearsal of the Contemporary Haitian Dance in a communal center in downtown Havana January 30, 2015. Nearly 25 people, from the Haitian Contemporary Dance Company Petit Fey or Small Leaf, in Haitian Creole, rehearse a play called Papa Guede for future presentations in Havana. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

A sculptural artwork depicting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and headless presidents shot by a hooded high school student (not pictured) is seen at the Contemporary Art Museum in Santiago, December 2, 2014. The artwork, part of the “El ladrillo angular” (The angular brick) exhibition, portrays a student fighting against the ongoing continuity of dictatorship because of a political and economic system which has been impossible to destroy, according to “Papas Fritas” the artwork's creator. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

“Residents in a small town littered with giant potholes may be ready to “crack” the art world – after turning their massively damaged roads into hilarious masterpieces. Fun-natured drivers from Scranton, Pennsylvania have been challenged by an arts group to turn the ugly craters in their neighborhood into pothole art”. – Caters News. Photo: Cereal bowl pothole. (Photo by Caters News)

To produce the images that convey his fatalistic and ironic approach to life, tinged with hope, he needed the environment and knowledge of Mother Russia, oiled with a bit of bribery to certain circus trainers. Enter the Great Russian Bear, the personification of Russia for the last several centuries, onto center stage and into his studio. The bear is recognized as both brutish and cute – Misha was the mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games – and has remained a symbol of Russia since Tsarist times. In 2009 it is the symbol of the United Russia Party.