SOFT SHELL


Roman Varlamov
Presented at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair
2026


A surreal still-life series that transforms the egg into a symbol of fragility, rebirth, and quiet beauty. The body of work explores balance, rupture, transformation, and the subtle tension between innocence and unease.

Rupture, 2026


Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta
Image: 30 × 38 in / Framed: 36 × 44 in

Edition of 5 + 2 AP

This photographic series centers on the egg as a site of tension rather than repose. Never merely an object, it appears as vessel, threshold, and fracture point—an emblem of origin that already contains the possibility of loss.

Across the works, ordinary forms slip into dream logic. A nest becomes a pedestal, a plate becomes a stage, shadows divide into color, and the shell—long a symbol of protection — reveals its own instability. The images meditate on beginnings while confronting exposure: the moment when what is held inside can no longer remain intact.

The egg also carries a quiet photographic memory. In the nineteenth century, egg white was used in albumen printing, one of photography’s earliest dominant processes. Here, the subject becomes both symbol and material echo—linking creation, surface, light, and trace.

Moving between devotional stillness and cinematic dislocation, the series holds beauty at the edge of rupture. These photographs do not resolve whether they witness birth, preservation, or collapse. Instead, they remain suspended in the charged instant when potential feels most alive.

This photographic series centers on the egg as a site of tension rather than repose. Never merely an object, it appears as vessel, threshold, and fracture point—an emblem of origin that already contains the possibility of loss.


Across the works, ordinary forms slip into dream logic. A nest becomes a pedestal, a plate becomes a stage, shadows divide into color, and the shell—long a symbol of protection — reveals its own instability. The images meditate on beginnings while confronting exposure: the moment when what is held inside can no longer remain intact.

The egg also carries a quiet photographic memory. In the nineteenth century, egg white was used in albumen printing, one of photography’s earliest dominant processes. Here, the subject becomes both symbol and material echo—linking creation, surface, light, and trace.

Moving between devotional stillness and cinematic dislocation, the series holds beauty at the edge of rupture. These photographs do not resolve whether they witness birth, preservation, or collapse. Instead, they remain suspended in the charged instant when potential feels most alive.

Offering, 2026


Archival pigment print on
Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta
Image: 18 × 23 in / Framed: 24 × 29 in

Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Drift, 2026


Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta
Image: 24 × 30 in / Framed: 30 × 36 in

Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Constellation, 2026


Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta
Image: 18 × 23 in / Framed: 24 × 29 in

Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Vessel, 2026


Archival pigment print on
Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta
Image: 18 × 23 in / Framed: 24 × 29 in

Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Home, 2026


Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta
Image: 18 × 23 in / Framed: 24 × 29 in

Edition of 5 + 2 AP