Exhibitions
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Constantin Sunnerberg (who is signing his artworks as Cost.) was born on 19th September 1970 in Moscow in the former USSR. His name is Swedish and it means „the mountain of the sun“. His family came to Russia few centuries ago. He grew up in an artistic environment – e.g. in the famous Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, there is a portrait of Constantin’s great-grandfather Constantin Sunnerberg painted by the great painter Mstislav Dobujinski.
Constantin started to draw very young and he illustrated his first book before he was ten. His mother was completely anticommunist with a lot of dissidents as friends. She decided to leave the country doing a wedding with a French journalist. The story is described in a book called “White wedding on the Red square”.
The family moved to Belgium when Constantin was 10 and 3 years later they become French citizens. Constantin spent his school years in The European School in Brussels and afterwards (in 1995) he finished “La Cambre” artistic University in the Grafic section.
In 1998 he started creating political drawings for the Belgian newspaper called Le Soir. Since then, he is working as a professional illustrator, mainly for press (Le Soir, Courrier International, Journal du Mardi, Espace de Libertés, Journaliste, Le Monde, Vif-Express, Independant on Sunday, Courrier ACPUE, World Parliamentarian, Imagine, Internazionale, Diplomatie Judiciaire, Synergy, ITT, etc.). He is creating drawings, posters, books, etc. Constantin Sunnerberg illustrated several books.
He loves changing styles and technics. He painted a cow for Le Soir (Art on cows Brussels). Constantin did about 40 trips in French cities for Courrier International creating illustrated reportings. In 2001 he created drawings for the first Rwanda trial (Brussels) – some drawings are in the Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine in Paris, France. In 2002 he created the Giant figures for the famous Carnival in Nice (France) and in 2003 drawings for the German TV ZDF.
Constantin Sunnerberg won prizes in political cartoons, in poster or writing short stories competitions as well as in Belgian chess tournements. He started to create cartoons and participate in cartoon competitions only in 2010 and immediately won third prize in a renowned cartoon contest in Knokke-Heist, Belgium. Since that time his cartoons have been awarded a number of prestigious prizes at both national and international cartoon competitions and a list of his achievements is still increasing (see bellow).
He is married with a Spanish pianist (born in Chile) and they have 3 children – Andrei, Ivan and Barbara. Constantin Sunnerberg is living and working in Brussels, Belgium.
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Drawings in the periodicals:
Le Soir, Courrier International, Journal du Mardi, Espace de Libertes, Journaliste, Le Monde, Vif-Express, Independant on Sunday, Courrier ACPUE, World Parliamentarian, Imagine, Internazionale, Diplomatie Judiciaire, l’Hebdo de Geneve, Synergy, ITT, etc.
Prizes :
Press cartoon :
- 2002 – PCB (Press Cartoon Belgium) : Second Prize
- 2004 – PCB (Press Cartoon Belgium) : Second Prize
- 2005 – PCB (Press Cartoon Belgium) : First Prize
- 2011 – 7th World Press Cartoon Sintra Portugal : Honourable Mention Editorial Cartoon
- 2013 – 9th World Press Cartoon Sintra Portugal : Honourable Mention Editorial Cartoon, Honourable Mention Caricature
Poster :
- 2011 – Poster for Tomorrow : Best Poster Prize
Cartoon :
- 2010 – International Knokke-Heist Cartoon Festival Belgium : Third Prize
- 2011 – 18th Euro-Kartoenale Kruishoutem Belgium : Best Belgian Prize
- 2011 – 2nd Limes contest Germany : Second Prize
- 2011 – 12th Salon International of Caricature G. Van Raemdonck Boechout Belgium : Prize IHA (International Humour in Art)
- 2011 – 4th Cartoonale “De Geus” Lebbeke Belgium : Second Prize
- 2011 – New Izvestia Contest Russia : Special Prize
- 2011 – 5th Urziceni contest Romania : Special Prize
- 2012 – Palatifini Cartoon Contest Italy : First Prize
- 2012 – 44th Umoristi a Marostica Italy : Second Prize
- 2012 – 2nd Selective Cartoon Contest Hungary : Second Prize
- 2012 – Zemst Sport Cartoon Contest Belgium : First Prize
- 2012 – 10th Humour&Vigne Contest France : Pineau Prize
- 2012 – Beggar International Cartoon Contest China : First Prize
- 2012 – 2nd GRIP Cartoon Contest Belgium : First Prize
- 2012 – Nasreddin Hodja Cartoon Contest Turkey : Aksam Newspaper Prize
- 2012 – 6th Jiaxing Contest China : Best Theme Prize
- 2012 – New Izvestia Contest Russia : Special Prize
- 2012 – Golden Smile Belgrade Serbia : Honourable Mention
- 2013 – Sinop Contest Turkey : Second Prize
- 2013 – 19th Euro-Kartoenale Kruishoutem Belgium : Best European Prize
- 2013 – 18th Dutch Cartoonfestival Holland : First Prize
- 2013 – 45th Umoristi a Marostica Italy : First Prize
- 2013 – 7th KUK Germany : 5th Prize
- 2013 – 3rd Turhan Selçuk Turkey : Cumhuriyet Gazetesi Prize
- 2013 – 7th Karikaturum Russia : Surgut Museum Prize
- 2013 – 17th Antiwar Kragujevac Serbia : Mayor of Bydgoszcz Prize
- 2013 – 25th Rotary Award Australia : First International Prize
- 2013 – 7th Urziceni Romania : Special Prize
- 2013 – 6th Smiling Cat Azerbaijan : Honourable Mention
- 2013 – 3rd Gold Panda China : Silver Medal
Books :
- 1980 « Your turn » Natalia Durova (Progress Publishers Moscow)
- 2002 « La Belgique d’une révolution à l’autre » (Renaissance du livre and Dexia Publishing)
- 2003 « Le XIV siècle : quel siècle turbulent » (Renaissance du livre and Dexia Publishing)
- 2007 « Guide of respect » (Belgian) of « Ni putes ni soumises ».
- 2007 « Les Fables de la Fontaine » (Renaissance du Livre/Luc Pire)
- 2008 « Don Quichotte » (Luc Pire)
- 2012 « De la ville aux bassins de vie » P. Furlan (Luc Pire)
Strange drawings :
- 2001 – Drawings for the first Rwanda trial (Brussels). Now some drawings are in the Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine of Paris.
- 2002 – Giant figures for the Carnaval of Nice (France).
- 2003 – Drawings for the German TV ZDF.
- 2003 – Painting a cow for the newspaper Le Soir (Art on Cows Brussels).
- 2005-2011 – Series of drawings for Courrier International in french cities. More that 40 reportings so far.
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We invite you to a tour of the great representative exhibition of excellent cartoonist Constantin Sunnerberg from Belgium. Certainly do not miss it !