Russian Art News - 2009-2011

Click here to see recent press coverage and videos on the Kolodzei Foundation and Russian art.

Art of Oleg Vassiliev: Discovering 20th Century Russian Masters. The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 14, 2011 - February 2012. For more information visit TMORA website. 

The Kolodzei Art Foundation lent artworks to the exhibition Authorized for Export from the USSR… at Cultural Foundation "Ekaterina", Moscow. The show on view from June 22 until October 2, 2011.

The Kolodzei Art Foundation is lending artworks to the exhibition Hostages of Voids at the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) in conjunction with 4th Moscow Biennale. The show is on view from September 24 to November 13, 2011.

Concerning the Spiritual Tradition in Russian Art. Selections from the Kolodzei Art Foundation Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art. Curated by Natalia Kolodzei. Opening Reception on Thursday, April 14, 2011 from 6 to 8 pm at Chelsea Art Museum Home of Miotte Foundation 556 West 22nd Street (@ 11th AVE) New York City Museum hours: Tue - Sat 11am - 6pm Thursdays 11am - 8pm. On Saturdays, April 30, May 7, May 28, June 4, and June 11 at 4 pm gallery talks will be led by exhibition curator Natalia Kolodzei. Ms. Kolodzei, Executive Director of the Kolodzei Art Foundation and co-owner of the Kolodzei Collection, will discuss the artworks in this exhibition, as well as the history of Non-Conformist and contemporary Russian art from the time her mother, Tatiana Kolodzei, started their Collection in Moscow through today. Tours free with Museum admission. The reception is on Thursday, May 5, 6 to 9pm. 
On Thursday, June 2 from 6-8pm New Review Poetry Evening and Reception (click here for more info). 
On Thursday, June 9 from 6-8pm SLOVOSFERA - the literary, musical and visual evening with Gennady Katsov (text) and Julian Milkis (clarinet).

The exhibition continues through June 18, 2011. Click here for the press-release or visit www.chelseaartmuseum.org.

The Kolodzei Art Foundation presents: Dawn of Manned Space Exploration, Photographed by Leonid Lazarev at Russia World Forum, March 29-30, U.S. Senate, Washington DC and Russian Cultural Centre, Washington DC. The exhibition at Russian Cultural Centre continues through June 20, 2011.

The Kolodzei Art Foundation lent fifteen works on paper to the exhibition No Exit Art: Works on Paper by Nonconformist Artists from the 1950s through the End of Soviet Era to the Museum of Russian Art, 80 Grand St., Jersey City, NJ 07302. The show runs from November 13, 2010 to January 14, 2011.

The Kennan Institute and the Kolodzei Art Foundation present Moscow Grafika: Artists’ Prints 1961 – 2009. Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art. The exhibit will be on view from March 12 to July 20, 2010 at the Woodrow Wilson Center, located at: 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20004.There will be an opening reception on Friday, March 12, 2010 from 4 to 6PM.
Moscow Grafika includes works in various mediums of printmaking, including linocut, etching, screenprint, monotype and lithography. Dating from 1961 through the present, the works represent trends in historic non-conformist art as well as traditional and digital mediums in printmaking by artists who worked or working in Moscow. Several generations of non-conformist and independent artists are represented in the exhibition, they include those who began their careers during Khrushchev’s "thaw" of the 1960’s and 1970’s who took part in the first unofficial exhibitions; artists who began working in the perestroika (late 1980's) and the post-perestroika periods; as well as artists who entered the scene more recently during the post-Soviet years. 
Artists represented in Moscow Grafika include Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Valeriy Gerlovin, Yuri Albert, Grisha Bruskin, Andrei Budaev, Ivan Chuikov, Andrei Filippov, Tatiana Levitskaia, Eduard Gorokhovsky, Alexander Kosolapov, Valentina Kropivnitskaia, Igor Makarevich, Marina Karpova, Sergei Mironenko, Mikhail Molochnikov, Georgii Litichevsky, Ernst Neizvestny, Victor Pivovarov, Dmitri Plavinsky, Aidan Salakhova, Oscar Rabin, Marina Telepneva, Leonid Tishkov, Yuri Sobolev, Leonid Sokov, Oleg Tselkov, Oleg Vassiliev, Vladimir Yankilevsky and Alexander Zakharov

A Selection of Video Works from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art during 2010 World Arts Olympus, Queen Mary, Long Beach, California, June 17- 21, 2010. A Selection of Video Works from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art brings together a selection of video works exploring the varied manifestation in video art by Russian artists in their homeland and in America. The selection includes video works by Anna Frants, Valeriy Ayzenberg, Marina Gertsovskaia, Alena Anosova, and Oleg Arnautov and Vera Nekludova, Freedom as a Citation from the Explanatory Dictionary of 2007. These videos were included in the exhibition Moscow - New York  = Parallel Play at the Chelsea Art Museum, New York in 2008. 

Kolodzei Art Foundation, and Barbarian Art Gallery by Natasha Akhmerova, in collaboration with Phenomena Project are pleased to present Valery Yershov: Lost Wanderings at White Box, 329 Broome Street, New York, New York. The exhibition will run from February 26 to March 11, 2010. Opening reception: Friday, March 5, 6:30 – 11 pm.

The Kolodzei Art Foundation lent artworks to the exhibition Not Toys?! at the State Tretyakov gallery (September 23 - November 8, 2009 in conjunction with 3rd Moscow Biennale

From Non-Conformism to Feminisms: Russian Women Artists from the Kolodzei Art Foundation.
Chelsea Art Museum - Home of the Miotte Foundation, 556 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011, November 13, 2008 – February 7, 2009. Opening Reception Tuesday, December 9, 2008, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. click here for the press-release or visit http://chelseaartmuseum.org/
On Saturdays, January 24, 31, and February 7 at 3 pm, Gallery talks will be led by exhibition curator Natalia Kolodzei. Ms. Kolodzei, Executive Director of the Kolodzei Art Foundation and co-owner of the Kolodzei Collection, will discuss the artworks in this exhibition, as well as the history of Russian women artists, Non-Conformist and contemporary Russian art from the time her mother, Tatiana Kolodzei, started their Collection in Moscow through today. Tours free with Museum admission
The exhibition From Non-Conformism to Feminisms: Russian Women Artists from the Kolodzei Art Foundation is a selection from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art, and covers three generations, from the 1960’s to the present. The show includes work in many media - painting, works on paper, photography, and video. This exhibition is arranged thematically and features the work of emerging, mid-career and established artists. Twenty five artists, ranging in age from 30 to over 80, represent several stages in the evolution of non-conformist and independent art in Russia. The exhibition is a visual exploration of the development and accomplishments of women artists from Russia. The event is designed to generate public awareness of Russian women in art, and to empower women artists to pursue their calling. List of artists: Lydia Masterkova, Valentina Kropivnitskaya, Rimma Gerlovina, Maria Elkonina,  Bella Levikova, Natalia Nesterova, Tatyana Nazarenko, Olga Bulgakova, Anna Birshtein, Marina Telepneva, Tatiana Levitskaia, Nadezhda Gaiduk and Valentina Lebedeva. The latest generation is made up of artists whose works date from post-perestroika and post-Soviet period from the late 1980's to the present, including Natalia Kamenetskaia, Alla Esipovich, Marina Koldobskaya, Marina Gertsovskaia, Tatiana Antoshina, Natalia Elkonina, Marina Karpova, Irina Salnikova, Anna Frants, Anna Brochet, Elena Kallistova and Natalia Sitnikova.

Moscow - New York = Parallel Play. From the Kolodzei Art Foundation Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art. 
Chelsea Art Museum - Home of the Miotte Foundation, 556 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011, February 22 - May 17, 2008. Opening reception Wednesday, February 27, 6-9PM.  click here for the press-release or visit http://chelseaartmuseum.org/. National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA), Zoologicheskaya 13, Moscow,  from October 16 to November 11, 2007.  (click here for press-release in Russian language)
Moscow - New York = Parallel Play: Selections from the Kolodzei Art Foundation Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art was shown at the National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Moscow in 2007 and, with its opening in New York, forms an art-meeting of the visual cultures. The exhibition highlights the artistic axis of the two cities, representing Russian artists living or working in these two art capitals and creating with their art an international context and distinctive intellectual plastic Russian "rhyme" in the art community. The works reflect the major current of Russian culture and describe the history of art processes and movements from the 1960s to the present. Moscow - New York = Parallel Play is a follow up to From Leningrad to St. Petersburg: Selections from the Kolodzei Collection, exhibited in 2003-04 at the Chelsea Art Museum in honor of the 300th Anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg. There are 100 works by sixty artists presented in the show, including Petr Belenok, Eric Bulatov, Oleg Vassiliev, Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin, Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Ilya Kabakov, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, Leonid Lamm, Francisco Arana Infante, Dmitri Krasnopevtsev, Anatolii Slepyshev, Vladimir Nemukhin, Dmitri Plavinsky, Oscar Rabin, Eduard Shteinberg, Shimon Okshteyn, Natalia Nesterova, Olga Bulgakova, Igor Novikov, Valery Koshlyakov, Asya Dodina, Slava Polishchuk, Alexander Zakharov, Sviatoslav Ponomarev, Tatiana Antoshina. 

Olga Bulgakova and Alexander Sitnikov. Paintings. Objects. State Russian Tretyakov Gallery, Krymsky Val 10, Moscow, November 2 - 25, 2007. Opening reception on November 1 at 4 PM.. For more information visit www.tretyakov.ru
Olga Bulgakova and Alexander Sitnikov belong to the generation of artists beginning in the 1970s.  Their works have been exhibited widely in Russia, Europe and the United States and are in the permanent collections of major museums, including the State Russian Museum and the State Tretyakov Gallery. This is the first joint retrospective exhibition for the couple. In conjunction with this exhibition, Olga Bulgakova (ISBN: 9780975482964) and Alexander Sitnikov (ISBN: 9780975482988) have been published in both English and Russian languages. These books include essays by Alexander Borovsky, Barbara Thiemann, Natalia Kolodzei, Alexander Rozhin and Natalia Sitnikova.

Shimon Okshteyn. Dialogue with Objects. Contemporary Art Center MARS (Pushkarev Pereulok 5, Moscow) from May 17 to June 10, 2007. 
The exhibition Shimon Okshteyn. Dialogue with Objects is traveling to the State Russian Museum (Marble Palace, Millionnaya str., 5/1, Saint Petersburg) from July 26, 2007 to September 3, 2007. Opening reception on July 26 at 4 PM.

Modern and Contemporary - Russian Art Week in London– Public Lecture: Natalia Kolodzei, the Executive Director of the Kolodzei Art Foundation, New Jersey, and owner of the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art, spoke on Trends in Russian Art following Perestroika on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 at Sotheby’s, 34–35 New Bond Street, London

Vadim Voinov. The State Hermitage under a Full Moon. General Staff Building, the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. October 25, 2005 - April 24, 2006.
The exhibition has been organized by The State Hermitage Museum, in the collaboration with the Kolodzei Art Foundation (USA), Atellier II Gallery of Art (Moscow), Kultur Kontakt Foundation (Vienna, Austria), Pechatny Dvor Printers (St. Petersburg), Dean Publishers (St. Petersburg) and Free Culture Foundation (St. Petersburg).
Vadim Voinov was born 1940 in  Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and lives and works in  St. Petersburg. In his works, Voinov uses a technique he himself created--functional collage--intended to reconstruct the history of Czarist, revolutionary, Soviet and contemporary Russia.  In the 1960’s and 1970’s Voinov studied the history of early St. Petersburg architecture.  An art historian himself, he published articles and undertook archeological expeditions.  His devotion to archeology and understanding of the significance of each object introduced into his work a historical significance.  He developed functional collage beginning in 1979.  The objects used in Voinov’s works acquire a new historical meaning.  Voinov’s works are laconic in their composition.  
For this installation Voinov chose the unrenovated interiors of the General Staff Building on  Palace Square .  The exhibition consists of collages and installations made of authentic found objects on themes connected with the newest history of Russia .  There are 73 works represented in the exhibition, installed in five rooms.  Each group of collages and separate installations are thematically connected and titled:  Red Wall; Circle-The father of a square; The Viennese Set; and others. The installation of the exhibition is an artwork in itself.
The catalogue for the exhibition includes 17 essays with 110 illustrations.  Each copy of the catalogue is marked by an original, unique object: a stamp from the 1920’s-1940’s with the image of a soldier (“Voinov” can be translated into English as “soldier”).  The catalogue is published in Russian and English.

For more information visit: www.hermitagemuseum.org

Works on Paper: Soviet and Russian Art 1955-2005 from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art. Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, 2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. January 18 - March 31, 2006. Curatorial Talk and reception on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. 

Historic MADI: Its Roots. Artists from Russia through Uruguay to Argentina in 20th Century. MADI Museum, 3109 Carlisle Street, Dallas, Texas. The opening reception on Friday, February 17, 2006 from 5:30 to 8:00 PM. 
Lecture: Wednesday, May 3, 2006 7:00 p.m. and Thursday, May 4, 2006 at noon
Lectures are free. Optional lunch $7.00 Tatiana Kolodzei and her daughter, Natalia Kolodzei, will talk about the challenges of collecting art during the Communist era. The Kolodzeis have published four books on Russian art and were recently named by Art and Antiques as among the top 100 collections in the United States. The collection started 40 years ago in Moscow at the height of the Cold War and now contains more than 7,000 works by over 300 artists. Many of the works in the Kolodzei Collection are by "Non-Conformist" artists trained in top art schools but who followed their own paths rather than that imposed by the State. For more information visit: www.madimuseumdallas.org

Moscow Grafika: Artists' Prints 1961 – 2005. Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art. September 13- October 22, 2005 at the International Print Center New York, 526 West 26th Street. The Opening Reception will be held on Thursday, September 22nd, 6-8 p.m. For more information click here (Adobe Reader required)
Artists represented in Moscow Grafika include Yuri Albert, Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Farid Bogdalov, Grisha Bruskin, Andrei Budaev, Olga Bulgakova, Ivan Chuikov, Andrei Filippov, Valeryi Gerlovin, Marina Gertsovskaia, Eduard Gorokhovsky, Ilya Kabakov, Marina Karpova, Komar & Melamid, Otari Kandaurov, Alexander Kosolapov, Lev Kropivnitsky, Valentina Kropivnitskaia, Leonid Lamm, Georgy Litichevsky, Igor Makarevich, Sergei Mironenko, Mikhail Molochnikov, Ernst Neizvestny,Victor Pivovarov, Dmitri Plavinsky, Oscar Rabin, Mikhail Roginsky, Scherer & Ouporov, Alexandre Sitnikov, Natalia Sitnikova Yuri Sobolev, Leonid Sokov, Marina Telepneva, Oleg Tselkov, Oleg Vassiliev, Vladimir Yankilevsky and Alexander Zakharov.
International Print Center, New York is located in Chelsea on 26th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues at 526 West 26th Street, Room 824. Hours are 11- 6 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. For additional information call (212) 989-5090 or visit IPCNYs website www.ipcny.org
The exhibition was also presented at Russian Nights Festival in Los Angeles.

Perestroika + 20:  Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art. Harriman Institute, Columbia University, 420 West 118 Street, 12th floor, New York . September 28 to January 2006. Gallery Talk by Natalia Kolodzei, followed by a reception on Thursday, November 10 from  6-8 PM.
The exhibition Perestroika + 20:  Selections from the Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art features works by 21 artists from Russia. The works selected for the show construct a cultural image of  Russia  in the last 20 years by presenting work by a wide range of artistic trends.  Artists represented in Perestroika +20 include: Komar & Melamid, Eric Bulatov, Oleg Vassiliev, Natalia Nesterova, Tatyana Nazarenko, Eduard Shteinberg, Vladimir Nemukhin, Leonid Borisov , Olga Bulgakova, Marina Karpova, Marina Kolotvina, Valentina Lebedeva, Tatiana Levitskaia, Valerii Pianov, Alexander Sitnikov, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Farid Bogdalov, Dimitry Gerrman, Vladimir Kanevsky, Alexander Kozhin, Alexander Ney, and Oleg Slepov.

For more information on the Kolodzei Art Foundation's past events and exhibitions please click here