Georgy Kurasov's "Family Portrait." "Like it or not,
we are the artists of the 21st century," said Mr Kurasov.
St Petersburg radical artists want to take revenge. They have organized a group with the goal of fighting what they call "the conservative and neo-totalitarian school of arts."
The so-called "Revangard" group owes its roots to the clandestine wave of post-World War II artists who called themselves Avant-garde.
Avant-garde artists had a dubious reputation with the Soviet government, which distrusted anything not depicting the glories of Communism in social realism.
Revangard artists say they want to "revive the Russian medieval period through art." They call themselves the new artists of the new Russian medieval era.
"This is the most effective way to fight the dragon," said Revangard artist Georgy Kurasov, referring to "conservatism."
The idea to organize the Revangard movement was born recently out of the ongoing art exhibition, Petersburg '95, at the Central Manezh Hall.
The works of the Revangard were not allowed in the Manezh though the exhibition was planned to display at least one work of every artist, according to Kurasov.
"It's a conspiracy by the old die-hard painters," said Kurasov.
"If they fought us quite openly once, now they pretend that we do not exist and refuse to recognize us."
Whether Kurasov is right, art critics will tell. But he and three other colleagues opted for their own 10-day exhibition at the Gaza House of Culture to show their skills to the public.
The exhibition will reopen at Dom Kino in February.
"Like it or not, we are the artists of the 21st century," said Kurasov.