BIOGRAFY OF KONSTANTIN PLOTNIKOV
(known as Hikari Umihiko since 2025)
NEPTURIUS
Konstantin Plotnikov was born in 1991 in the Belarusian town
of Smarhon.
From an early age, the monotony of provincial life forced him to filter mundane reality through the prism of his imagination.
His mother instilled in him a deep love for painting and music, while his father ignited a passion for travel and nature.
The boy's first drawings captured the serene landscapes surrounding his hometown. Later, heavily influenced by cinema, he began depicting everything that stirred his fantasy: deep-sea creatures, extraterrestrial monsters, and cosmic landscapes. Since childhood, Kostya was captivated by dreams of the sea, biology, and outer space, shaping his core artistic credo:
of Smarhon.
From an early age, the monotony of provincial life forced him to filter mundane reality through the prism of his imagination.
His mother instilled in him a deep love for painting and music, while his father ignited a passion for travel and nature.
The boy's first drawings captured the serene landscapes surrounding his hometown. Later, heavily influenced by cinema, he began depicting everything that stirred his fantasy: deep-sea creatures, extraterrestrial monsters, and cosmic landscapes. Since childhood, Kostya was captivated by dreams of the sea, biology, and outer space, shaping his core artistic credo:
“All is finite. Infinite is only the All.”
At the age of 16, Konstantin enrolled in a local art school. As the exact sciences proved challenging, the profession of an artist became the ideal path — one capable of encompassing all his diverse interests. "You can be fascinated by everything and reflect it all on your canvases," he decided
Konstantin graduated with honors from the four-year art school in just two years and immediately held his first solo exhibition.
It was here that the defining direction of the young artist's path took shape—fantastic painting.
In 2008, Konstantin moved to Grodno to study at the university's Department of Computer Graphics and Fine Arts. However, the conservative views of the faculty, who insisted on standard academic still lifes, clashed with his artistic convictions. For five years, the artist struggled against rigid academic frameworks.
Despite these obstacles, Konstantin actively exhibited his work. His solo exhibitions were successfully held at the Smarhon Museum of Local Lore, the Tyzenhaus Gallery in Grodno, and the "From Student to Master" gallery in Minsk. In 2010, inspired by science fiction and space literature, he wrote his first sci-fi novella, Through Time and Space, which visitors could purchase directly at his shows.
It was here that the defining direction of the young artist's path took shape—fantastic painting.
In 2008, Konstantin moved to Grodno to study at the university's Department of Computer Graphics and Fine Arts. However, the conservative views of the faculty, who insisted on standard academic still lifes, clashed with his artistic convictions. For five years, the artist struggled against rigid academic frameworks.
Despite these obstacles, Konstantin actively exhibited his work. His solo exhibitions were successfully held at the Smarhon Museum of Local Lore, the Tyzenhaus Gallery in Grodno, and the "From Student to Master" gallery in Minsk. In 2010, inspired by science fiction and space literature, he wrote his first sci-fi novella, Through Time and Space, which visitors could purchase directly at his shows.
“Art is a window into other worlds. Yet under a fortunate conjuktion of circumstances it becomes a door-portal through which those worlds may enter into interaction with our own.”
THE BELARUSIAN CHAPTER
During this period, the artist also turned to filmmaking. Shortly before graduation, he produced his first independent short sci-fi film, THO-OG, personally building the sets and playing the lead role (available on his YouTube channel). Other avant-garde shorts followed, among which The Girl in the Bathroom (2018) gained the most popularity.
In 2019, Konstantin received invitations from several Warsaw galleries and moved to Poland. His first art auctions took place at Pragaleria and 101 Project. In 2020, he permanently relocated to Poland to dedicate himself entirely to the creative process. This period became his most prolific at the time: to establish himself in a new country, the artist created three to five paintings a month, working primarily with acrylics on canvas.
By 2021, Konstantin was regularly exhibiting in the largest and most prestigious galleries in Warsaw, including DESA Unicum, Agra-Art, Sopocki Dom Aukcyjny, and Art in House.
By 2021, Konstantin was regularly exhibiting in the largest and most prestigious galleries in Warsaw, including DESA Unicum, Agra-Art, Sopocki Dom Aukcyjny, and Art in House.
THE POLISH CHAPTER
At these auctions and exhibitions, his canvases were displayed alongside the masterpieces of universally recognized Polish surrealist masters, such as Zdzisław Beksiński and Jacek Yerka.
In Poland, Konstantin created several prominent series of works, including The Kiss, Temptation, and The Way of Life. During this time, he also immersed himself deeply in Japanese culture, which inspired a dedicated series of paintings. However, the pressing financial need to sell art to support his life overseas constrained his creative freedom. In the artist's view, many works from this period remained under-developed—a fact that, perhaps, lends them a raw, authentic charm.
NEW PHILOSOPHY AND THE PATH TO THE EAST
In 2025, Konstantin decided to slow his pace and return to a contemplative, deliberate way of painting. To mark this evolution, he adopted the additional creative pseudonym NEPTURIUS, designed to unify his visual art, music, and cinema under a single conceptual vision:
“If God is the Absolute and perfection, He could not have created a Universe where that lacked anything the human mind is capable of imagining. Otherwise He would cease to be perfect.”
Around this time, he released his first professional musical tracks, The Way of Rain and Space Fireflies, which are available on his YouTube channel.
In 2026, fate presents yet another unexpected turn in the artist's journey — a relocation to Japan and the beginning of a brand new, highly anticipated "JAPANESE CHAPTER."
In 2026, fate presents yet another unexpected turn in the artist's journey — a relocation to Japan and the beginning of a brand new, highly anticipated "JAPANESE CHAPTER."
THE JAPANESE CHAPTER
The decision to adopt the name Hikari Umihiko marks a conscious new chapter in the artist’s journey. Throughout his adult life, he has been deeply fascinated by Japanese culture, history, and art, always feeling a quiet, inexplicable connection to this country — as if in a past life, or perhaps in a parallel one, he had already lived here.
After finally moving to Japan, he felt the need for a name that would reflect both a personal transformation and this deeper bond with the place where his work now unfolds. While “Hikari” means light, “Umihiko” evokes not merely the sea, but the boundless ocean of cosmic space — the infinite expanse of the Universe. These two elements, light and the vast cosmic ocean, have long been central to his artistic vision and to the world of NEPTURIUS. This name is not a rejection of the past, but a way of stepping fully into the present.
After finally moving to Japan, he felt the need for a name that would reflect both a personal transformation and this deeper bond with the place where his work now unfolds. While “Hikari” means light, “Umihiko” evokes not merely the sea, but the boundless ocean of cosmic space — the infinite expanse of the Universe. These two elements, light and the vast cosmic ocean, have long been central to his artistic vision and to the world of NEPTURIUS. This name is not a rejection of the past, but a way of stepping fully into the present.
