Born in 1951 in Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan—a remote mountain town known for its challenging history as a former Soviet uranium mining site—Wladimir Barantschikov grew up surrounded by the striking beauty of the Tian Shan range alongside the complex environmental and social legacy left by the industry.

His artistic journey began in childhood, sparked by a vivid memory of seeing an old gentleman painting with oil colors in a park. That moment marked the beginning of a lifelong devotion to art. At the age of 15, Barantschikov—whose father was a war camp survivor who worked nights as a hospital security guard, and whose mother held down several jobs to support the family—left his modest but deeply loving home and moved to St. Petersburg to pursue formal training.

In 1972, he earned a diploma in Restoration of Icons and Paintings from the Art School in St. Petersburg. This was followed in 1983 by a second diploma in Decorative Painting from the prestigious Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design.

Throughout his career, Barantschikov remained committed to a wide-ranging artistic practice. He founded an art and design cooperative in his hometown, directing multiple projects over the course of a decade—including large-scale architectural mosaics, icon restoration, and film set design. In 1995, he moved to Germany, where new cultural influences deepened his artistic perspective, and where he has worked as a freelance artist ever since.

From an early age, even as a boy poring over every art book he could find in Kyrgyzstan, Barantschikov felt a deep pull toward surrealism and the fantastic. Inspired by the great masters of the genre, he gradually developed a visual language uniquely his own—layered, dreamlike, and psychologically resonant.

His work has been exhibited internationally, with shows across Europe (France, Germany, Austria), Asia (Taiwan, Dubai), and the United States. He currently lives and works in southern Germany.