Many Minsk residents walk past Aliaksandr Blahi's works every day without even knowing it.
Here and below, photos from the artist's social media
Murals by this artist appear on building facades in Minsk, illustrations are found in cafes and on coffee cups, and some drawings Minsk residents even specifically search for in courtyards.
Behind these works is Aliaksandr Blahi, known by his artistic names TakTak or Kontra.
The path to urban murals
The artist himself is from near Brest, but has long lived and worked in Minsk. He graduated from the Belarusian National Technical University with a degree in "architecture" and received a master's degree.
He started painting on walls in the early 2000s. Initially, these were experiments with letters, colors, and forms, but gradually street art turned into a profession.
Today, his portfolio includes dozens of murals and hundreds of illustrations that can be found all over Belarus. In Minsk alone, there are about two dozen large wall paintings. His works adorn the streets and interiors of other Belarusian cities — Brest, Vitebsk, Grodno, Mogilev, Gomel, Novogrudok, Baranovichi, Lida, Borisov, Molodechno, Bobruisk, Soligorsk, Braslav, Vileyka, and many others.
Aliaksandr also has projects abroad — in Almaty, Moscow, Riga, Vilnius, Gdansk, Bialystok, Chełmno, and Nalchik.
Many of them resemble pages from illustrated books: bright characters, many details, and a light fairy-tale atmosphere.
Over the years, Aliaksandr has repeatedly participated in Belarusian and international art projects, festivals, and competitions dedicated to design and street art.
Among them are Must Act, Meeting of Styles, Write4Gold, Folk on the Street, Orestad Street Art Competition, Dni Street-Artu, Ad.nak, Gravity, VulicaBrasil, Minsk Week of Design, WESTSIDE connection, EASA, 9hills, and others.
Cats sought all over the city
One of the artist's most famous series is cats on transformer boxes in Minsk.
At first glance, these are simple illustrations, but each cat has its own character: one looks a little mockingly, the other — seriously, as if a guardian of the courtyard.
On Threads, people write in comments that they accidentally find such drawings and immediately recognize the artist's hand.
"I've already found three cats in different districts of Minsk," shares one user.
"We have one near our house! Children love it terribly," reads another comment.
Where else do we see his drawings?
Many Minsk residents have seen Aliaksandr's works without even realizing it. His graphics adorn the walls of cafes and restaurants — for example, in the Tempo pizzeria chain and "Vasilki" restaurants, as well as in the "Paragraf 45" space and Lavazza cafes.
His illustrations can be seen on walls, in menus, on cups, and packaging.
Sometimes his drawings become part of entire design collections. For example, Mark Formelle released a capsule clothing line with his ornaments — they could be seen on T-shirts, sweatshirts, and socks.
The artist also worked on the design of the "Afiston" store in the Galleria Minsk shopping center, as well as on the visual elements of the A-100 and Hoster company offices.
From murals to a 90-ton BelAZ
In 2019, the artist participated in an unusual project: he painted a BelAZ-75585 mining dump truck weighing about 90 tons. The project was done together with Wargaming: the huge machine was covered with a bright geometric pattern resembling camouflage from computer games.
As a result, an ordinary industrial giant turned into a real art object.
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U nas u Dziaržynsku taksama niechta ŭpryhožyŭ byŭ ci nie dziasiatak vysotak niekali. Dadałosia dušeŭnaści...