Baker Artist Portfolios

Dima Gapeev is a Baltimore raised Artist, attending Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and UMBC, graduated with a bachelor's in physics. After college, Dima developed a vision, a solution for a very large problem within the social technology landscape. Driven by pure passion, he developed muzei.io, a platform whose purpose is to change the norm surrounding how we approach art, culture, and politics.

In the United States, major platforms are owned by the elite ruling class, and the software that is used in these platforms are designed to steal your attention and control the narrative. They have a monopoly on attention, on social interaction, and on discourse.

As Dima started his artist career, he wished for his pain to be understood. Others would see the history of violence and the traumatizing events throughout. That would require for an emphasis that he is a product of his life, and not in control of his destiny. Rather than putting a focus on the violent past, he aimed to show others the brighter future that he hopes for. His subjects typically tend to be cats, flowers, plants, and other scenes depicting the natural world. His materials are often oil paints used on top of salvaged mirrors and photo frames. The nature of the materials are established for a few reasons: first, to show the fragility of social order and interpretation of culture during its era. Materials are sourced second hand from thrift stores and other reseller markets.

During a time where the interests of capitalism has a controlling grip over how our lives are intended to work as pawns until the age of retirement (if that'll still exist), Dima's paintings often depict the carefree nature of felines enjoying the sun. The eternal truth of the bliss from sunbathing will exist whether or not the stock market is doing well. Cats require effort to understand their nature, while dogs will simply tell you what they want and who they are. Cats serve as these complex, complicated, yet rich individuals, and we wouldn't know about it all if we didn't pause in our grind and hustle to understand.