About the artist
Dr. Willi Boos is a painter based in Dresden. He was born in 1955 in Barnaul in the Soviet Union, studied at the youth art school there, and graduated with distinction in painting from the art and graphics faculty of the Kostroma Pedagogical Institute in 1979. A doctorate at the Moscow Pedagogical University followed, completed in 1991, and he moved to Germany the year after.
In Dresden he worked as a painter and a restorer of wall painting, and taught art at the St. Afra Gymnasium in Meissen and at the vocational college for health and social care in Chemnitz. He has been a member of the BBK Dresden regional association and has painted full time since 2004.
His work has been shown at the Städtische Galerie Dresden, the Festung Königstein, the Manege central exhibition hall in St Petersburg, the Galerie Schmidt-Rottluff in Chemnitz and the Inter-Art Galerie Reich in Cologne, and in 2026 at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris and the Discovery Art Fair in Frankfurt. He took part in the Sparkasse Karlsruhe art prize in 2023 and 2026 and was nominated in 2024. His solo exhibition “Der Gedanke hinter dem Bild” opened in Dresden in 2026.
Artist interview
Dr. Willi Boos paints in oil in Dresden, between reality and imagination. Born in Barnaul and trained in Kostroma and Moscow, he has worked in Germany since 1992. He talks about Italian Mannerism, the Dutch Baroque and the transience of life.
Willi Boos answered in German. Each answer is given here in English, with his original underneath.
How would you introduce yourself in one phrase: who you are and what you create?
I think of myself as an artist who wanders between reality and imagination, looking again and again for new connections between those two worlds.
Ich verstehe mich als einen Künstler, der zwischen Realität und Fantasie wandert und dabei immer wieder neue Verbindungen zwischen diesen beiden Welten sucht.
What is special about your technique? Why this medium?
In my work I combine the classical techniques of painting with a contemporary visual language of my own.
In meiner künstlerischen Arbeit verbinde ich die klassischen Techniken der Malerei mit einer zeitgenössischen, subjektiv geprägten Bildsprache.
What inspires the subjects you choose, and where do your ideas usually begin?
I find inspiration in Italian Mannerism, in the Dutch Baroque and in the work of the Surrealists. Beyond that, themes such as beauty and the transience of life occupy me, and they play an important part in my paintings again and again.
Inspiration finde ich in der Kunst des italienischen Manierismus, des niederländischen Barock sowie im Werk der Surrealisten. Darüber hinaus beschäftigen mich Themen wie Schönheit, Vergänglichkeit des Lebens, die in meinen Bildern immer wieder eine wichtige Rolle spielen.
If someone were searching for your work on Google, what keywords do you think they would type?
Classical painting, contemporary painting, fantastic painting, Surrealism, Realism, the erotic.
Klassische Malerei, zeitgenössische Malerei, fantastische Malerei, Surrealismus, Realismus, Erotik.
Where can people find your work?
Website: williboos-malerei.de. He is also represented on artboxy.com.
www.williboos-malerei.de, www.artboxy.com