Press Release - Sem Art

March 18 th to April 29 th 2011
Press release
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
info@sem-art.mc
www.sem-art.mc

Russian Art
from March 18 th to April 29th 2011
SEM-ART Gallery is pleased to present the Russian Art Exhibition. The show brings together 12 Russian artists
from different generations and within a plurality of works ranging from painting and sculpture to installations and
photography offers a heavy-weight overview of the Russian contemporary art.
Participating artists:
• Marc Chagall
• Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
• Erik Bulatov
• Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina
• Vladimir Dubossarsky & Alexander Vinogradov
• AES+F
• Sergey Shekhovtsov
• Electroboutique (Aristarkh Chernyshev and Alexei
Shulgin)
• Arseniy Zhilyaev
• Sergey Bratkov
• Irina Davis
• Julia Zastava
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
info@sem-art.mc
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The Russian show presents a distinctive overview
of established and young contemporary artists
working now in Russia and abroad. Including
such luminaries as Ilya and Emilia Kabakovs, Erik
Bulatov, Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina as well
as young talents, the exhibition surveys how Russian
contemporary artists reflect on themes inherent to
the Russian situation, yet at the same time, relevant
in the global cultural context. Sensitive to paradoxes
and disparities of the contemporary world, Russian
artists always explored these issues.
The art of Ilya and Emilia Kabakovs, although originally
rooted in the post-Stalinist Russia, is, nevertheless,
universal in its exploration of the human condition.
Presented in this exhibition is a wonderful selection
of works from 1994 to 2009, which demonstrate the
artists’ characteristic use of the negative space and
language. The picture is never fully grasped – we see
only the edges, glimpses of the object, sometimes
through gaps and crevices. Only partially unveiled,
the image has a sense of levity – although indicated
within the reach, the feeling is that it is far, as if one
is observing from the high above. The language
underscores the obstructed visual – the words are
used to narrate what cannot be seen.
Just like the Kabakovs, Erik Bulatov is a key figure of
Moscow Conceptualism, which was part of the unofficial
art in the Soviet 70s. Language plays an important role
in his works. The words, as if on a conveyor belt, stream
out of and into his paintings with force and order. And
yet, as if undermining their formal order, their message
is often lyrical. The contrast is further heightened by
the treatment of the background – usually filled with
references to sky or water, Bulatov adds lightness and
sublime dimension to his paintings that stands in stark
opposition to the strict regimented shape of words.
Skipping a few generations, the young artist Arseniy
Zhilayev takes his cue from Moscow Conceptualists
and employs language in his pieces too. His elegant
sculptures are made out either from pieces of found
furniture or thin MDF boards that make up sentences
and phrases. Through his “writings” and installations,
Zhilayev presents his concepts; the more recent ones
explore the meaning of labor and its evolution in the
contemporary world. The fondness for cheap and
simple material provoked comparisons to the Russian
art from the 70s and recently Zhilayev’s work together
with some other artists was classified into a new
movement – “novye skychnye” or the new boring. The
tongue in cheek title underlines the new premises for
opposition to big and expensive art production.
If Arseniy Zhilayev engages with the more recent
Russian art history, other artists feedback to the
monumental heritage of the Russian avant-garde. The
essential installation The Mushrooms of the Russian
Avant Garde by Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina
dissects the utopian Tatlin’s Tower of the 1910s. The
symbol of a utilitarian dream, Tatlin’s Monument to
the Third International is placed atop flying agarics –
a poisonous and hallucinogenic mushroom commonly
found in all Russia’s woodland. Often a symbol of
shamanism, its organic magic induces wild dreams.
Tatlin’s Tower is also a symbol which is now associated
with dreaming – the never realized ambitious project
has become an emblem of a failed cultural revolution.
In a similar manner, the two paintings included in this
installation reference Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist
compositions and are flanked by rows of mushrooms.
Although the artists explore the evolution of cultural
signs specific to the Russian context, the shifting
cultural sands is always a globally universal topic. The
dream like composition by Makarevich and Elagina
remind us of its semiotic elusiveness.
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The Tatlin Tower is also an inspiration for the collective
Electroboutique, the first in Russia to work with net- and
sci-art. Their re-interpretation of this symbol is a comment
on our global technological advancement – the Tower
appears as a gigantic I-phone, simultaneously hinting
faintly at the new Tower of Babel. Here, both symbols
have iconic status, however, as with any icon, its power
carries hidden dangers and corruptions. Electroboutique
presents another work in this exhibition – Commercial
Protest. It is one of their earliest works exploring the
consumer nature of the society. The plasma screen
is made up of various brands, which mimic the shape
of the viewer once he or she approaches the screen,
making an interactive metaphor for the constitution of
the modern human beings.
Contemporary society is also commented on in the works
by AES+F, a distinguished collective of Russian artists
who came to be known for their slick, impressive and yet
very disturbing video works, in which they analyze the
dark underbelly of class, wealth and age structures. The
works Europe-Europe are not an exception. Borrowing
the innocence from the visual language of the European
porcelain, originally produced for the enjoyment of the
moneyed elite, the figurines are no longer bucolic visions
but rather a wicked combination of old age symbols such
as shepherds caught in unrestrained acts of love with
the contemporary characters such as a policewoman or
a businessman.
Artist Sergey Shekhovtsov, who represented Russia
in the 53 rd Venice Biennale, exhibits works from his
projects Zoo and other pieces. Using sponge as
his prime material, the artist crafts brightly colored
sculptures, which could be lightly termed Pop in their
approach. Although made from the soft material, the
sculptures are carved in a way reminiscent of wood and
stone, tricking the viewer. The subjects of his sculptures
are contemporary and relevant characters and heros –
from ordinary girls and boys to Karl Lagerfeld.
Musings and observations on the modern life are also
subject of the artistic duo of Vladimir Dubossarsky and
Alexander Vinogradov. Established as one of the most
famous artists of the 90s for their paintings of such
Hollywood stars as Arnold Schwarzenegger set in pastoral
surroundings, their work has never stopped evolving.
Their recent pieces are dedicated to the life around them,
and specifically to the Moscow neighborhood of their
studio. Effortlessly and beautifully executed, the work
is suffused with their signature optimism and yet full of
serenity that mature artists achieve.
The painterly tradition is continued with the work of the
young artist Julia Zastava. Hers is a style bordering on
the dark side of surrealism. The work selected for the
exhibition is part of her series on interpretation of gods
from Greek mythology. The Medusa Gorgon looks like
a lady from the reign of Marie-Antoinette. At the first
glance, she is beautiful and seductive, but at a closer
inspection her physical deformity becomes visible
through skin patches and surface distortion.
In a more light-hearted approach to commenting on
beauty within and outside is the work by Irina Davis.
Slick and professionally executed, her photographs
explore the theme of “pin-up” girl, the images that are
so often in demand by today’s society.
And finally, standing on his own is the recent work by
Sergei Bratkov, the ingenious Russian photographer.
Choosing ordinary subjects to capture, his work is
nevertheless threaded with beauty, be it photographs
of the Russian naval officers’ debauchery or his
more recent abstract works of simple, found objects
on the street.
Elena Evstafieva
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
info@sem-art.mc
www.sem-art.mc
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marc
chagall (1887-1985)
Chagall in twenty poems
Painter and poet, a veritable master of balancing colour, is a multifaceted
artist who cannot be summed up in any one exhibit.
Here, however, is a collection of small formats that evoke all of
the major themes that have marked his route. It is an astonishing
concentration of a lifetime dedicated to creating. These painting
date from the late fifties to 1982, three years before his death, and
may be considered as a kind of artistic legacy. The obsessions,
the leitmotifs, the figures and the silences that inhabit the world
of Marc Chagall are all found there. In the same way as if an
exact replica in miniature of a monumental temple were built.
The temple, a place of meditation, where childhood memories
and prayers are represented. And the Bible, which is «The greatest
source of poetry of all time» according to the painter, is clearly
present in this collection with the powerful evocation of the «King
David» or in the more mysterious oil painting «The Reading,» where
the significance of the writing of the Book, the sacred is perceived.
The sacred always shrouds lovers in its veils, another subject
dear to Chagall. In the shade of an «Flowering tree» on a blue
background, they leave us to imagine their posterity, the fertility
of their love with «The Yellow Bouquet» that releases its seeds.
«Couple in a blue landscape»—A surrealist poem of wandering in
space in search of bearings, in suspension, while sensuality, and
the appeal of the flesh, are expressed in «The Nude». A painting
that evokes the Song of Songs. One can almost hear the lover
whisper in his fiancée’s ear «Your breasts are like pomegranates....»
The limbo between reality and dream is always present. Chagall,
whose «dreamlike chromaticism» can be referred to, is fond of
chimeras and phantasmagoria. So, “The mermaid with red hair»
talks with a yellow headed goat, while in another painting, the
artist holds enormous red rooster in his arms. And what is «The
white donkey» doing in the bouquet Clinging to the branches,
floating among the flowers, it seems to be watching over
the couple, or perhaps the village, the famous Jewish shtetl
of central Europe, also present in «The green bouquet in the
village sky» and hinted at in «Offering to the red sun». In this
striking work, the hands reach toward each other in an élan, a
desire to come together. An opening up whose need to exist
is evoked in the sketch «The window». The sounds and words
of the vast world are let in; we open our homes and our hearts.
Acrobats and trapeze artists play an essential role in this impetus
of generosity for Chagall. The circus is the place of the feat, a
place where everyone gives more to offer a part of a dream, an
arena where acrobats offer themselves to the crowds. Several
works in this collection refer to it such as «The clown with a
blue face» which beautifully illustrates the gift of self, a sort of
sacrifice for public when the artist risks his life on stage.
Chagall once said: «My circus pitches its Big Top in the sky.
It performs among the clouds, among the chairs, or in the
moon-reflecting windows.» This precious, and bright private
collection, give everyone food for thought on an artist who will
never stop amazing us with his vocabulary beyond any syntax,
for his total freedom.
20, avenue de la Costa
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Marc chagall
L’offrande au soleil rouge, circa. 1978
16 x 22 cm
Huile et encre de Chine sur carton entoilé.

Ilya & emilia
Kabakov (b.1933) (b.1945)
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are Russian-born, Americanbased
artists that collaborate on environments which fuse
elements of the everyday with those of the conceptual.
While their work is deeply rooted in the Soviet social and
cultural context in which the Kabakovs came of age, their
work still attains a universal significance.
Ilya Kabakov was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Soviet Union,
in 1933. He studied at the VA Surikov Art Academy
in Moscow, and began his career as a children’s book
illustrator during the 1950’s. He was part of a group of
Conceptual artists in Moscow who worked outside the
official Soviet art system. In 1985 he received his first
solo show exhibition at Dina Vierny Gallery, Paris, and he
moved to the West two years later taking up a six months
residency at Kunstverein Graz, Austria. In 1988 Kabakov
began working with his future wife Emilia (they were to be
married in 1992). From this point onwards, all their work
was collaborative, in different proportions according to
the specific project involved. Today Kabakov is recognized
as the most important Russian artist to have emerged
in the late 20th century. His installations speak as much
about conditions in post-Stalinist Russia as they do about
the human condition universally.
Emilia Kabakov (nee Kanevsky) was born in Dnepropetrovsk,
Soviet Union, in 1945. She attended the Music College
in Irkutsk in addition to studying Spanish language and
literature at the Moscow University. She immigrated to
Israel in 1973, and moved to New York in 1975, where she
worked as a curator and art dealer.
Their work has been shown in such venues as the Museum
of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC,
the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Documenta IX, at the
Whitney Biennial in 1997 and the State Hermitage Museum
in St. Petersburg among others. In 1993 they represented
Russia at the 45th Venice Biennale with their installation
The Red Pavilion. The Kabakovs have also completed many
important public commissions throughout Europe and
have received a number of honors and awards, including
the Oscar Kokoschka Preis, Vienna, in 2002 and the
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, in 1995.
The Kabakovs live and work in Long Island.
Extract from:
http://www.ilya-emilia-kabakov.com/index.php/
about/biographical-sketch
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 MONACO
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8

9
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
The Hand, 2009
Sculpture : 43 x 61 x 50.7 cm
Plinth: 46 x 67 x 120 cm
Marbre
8/9

Erik
Bulatov (b.1933)
There is no doubt that Erik Bulatov is rooted in the
Soviet world – propaganda symbols and slogans from
everyday Soviet culture are regular features in his
paintings and drawings. Yet it would be too simple
to base an interpretation of his oeuvre solely on his
nationality, especially since he moved to Paris in 1990.
Nor can his latest works be seen merely as the results
of a Russian emigrant’s explorations on canvas; they
also address questions of depth, surface and light. His
2008 painting “Je vis plus loin (ou Je continue à vivre)”,
for instance, shows a highly idiosyncratic disregard
for centricity. The top of the painting is dominated by
a cloudy, mother-of-pearl sky; the bottom half by a
landscape seen from a bird’s eye view. Between the two
is a line of white Cyrillic text. The characters have two
possible meanings in Russian: “I am still alive” and “I am
not here, I am far away (from you), but I am alive.” The
extreme one-point-perspective that stretches the end
of the text into the distance, and the fact that the text is
in Cyrillic and addresses a far-away audience lead one
to conclude that the painting is autobiographical. At
the same time, the work attests to an ongoing search
for new ways of combining naturalistic and typographic
elements, iconographic and semantic content, and of
representing light.
Erik Bulatov’s works have appeared in nearly every
important exhibition on 20th century Russian art,
including “RUSSIA!” at the Guggenheim Museums
in New York (2005) and Bilbao (2006), and “Berlin-
Moscow / Moscow-Berlin 1950–2000”, Tretyakow-
Galerie, Moskau (2003), and Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
(2004), or „Traumfabrik Kommunismus. Die visuelle
Kultur der Stalinzeit“, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt /
Main (2003). He was also featured at the 43rd Venice
Biennale (1988) and the Third Moscow Biennale (2009).
His solo exhibitions have appeared at mamco – Musee
d’art moderne et contemporain in Geneva (2009/2010)
and at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
(2007), at the kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2006),
and the Tretyakow-Galerie, Moskau (2003 and 2006).
20, avenue de la Costa
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Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
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www.sem-art.mc
10

11
Erik Bulatov
Horizontale III, 1966-2005
140 x 140 cm
Oil on canvas

igor makarevich (b. 1943)
& elena elagina (b. 1949)
The Celestial Staircase and the Ethereal Island
Imagine that we could define the terrestrial and heavenly
worlds and count domestic Conceptualism among
the cosmic phenomena that Russians like so much.
Immediately, the magic figures of Fedorov, Tsiolkovsky, and
Malevich come to mind. Their theories link 19th century
materialist thought and metaphysical questions. Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky, a modest provincial teacher of mathematics
who suffered from deafness all his life, mentally flew away
to the farthest parts of outer space. The visionary observed
clouds in the shape of bright figures in the sky. In the late
1920s, he wrote in his journal that he had seen the word
“PARADISE” in Latin inscribed clearly in the evening sky –
evidence of the utopian nature of his aspirations. He called
the whole of the known universe the Ethereal Island.
While maniacally designing a metal stack for interplanetary
missiles, Tsiolkovsky looked for the whereabouts of God in a
space measured in billions of light years. Kazimir Malevich was
concerned with the same thing, with “God Is Not Overthrown”
being the larger part of his fundamental theoretical writing,
Suprematism. The World As Nonobjectivity. Malevich’s God
disintegrating into innumerable planes of color, coalesces
into one mathematical point, and explodes again, this time
in the feverish geometry on his canvases. Long before
Conceptualism, Malevich bulked up the weight of his texts
in a bid to bring them to a critical mass. Malevich kept the
majority of those texts safe from the unsafe environment
of Soviet Russia in 1927, and they miraculously survived in a
Berlin set ablaze by American air raids.
We have thus conventionally divided the two perceptions
of art into “terrestrial” and “celestial”. Shamanism knows
many examples of the ascent to Heaven by stairway. The
same device is used to make it easier for gods to descend to
earth and for the souls of the dead to go up to Heaven. For
example, on the Malay Archipelago, the Sun God is invited
to descend to Earth on a stairway of seven steps. A Dayak
(Dyak) witchdoctor summoned to treat a sick person puts
up a ladder reaching to the ceiling in the middle of the
hut, on which spirits descend upon the invitation of the
witch doctor to possess him. Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument
to the Third International is an example of such a Celestial
Stairway. Shall we try and use this spiral stairway As was
mentioned earlier, peace on Earth is still non-existent and
can be found only in the imagination or hallucinations. The
red mushroom, also known as Amanita muscaria or simply
fly agaric, can serve as an instrument to seek this peace.
Like birch and spruce, this oldest means of expanding
one’s mind has been widespread throughout the current
territory of Russia since the end of the Ice Age.
Igor Makarevich
20, avenue de la Costa
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Makarevich & Elagina
Mushrooms of the Russian Avant Garde, 2004-2008
100 x 70 x 8 cm
Wood, ceramics, canvas, acrylic

Vladimir Dubossarsky (b.1964)
& Alexander vinogradov (b.1963)
When they began working together in 1994, Alexander
Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky threw a veritable
brick through the window of the russian art world;
the time being ripe for radicalism and conceptual art
for Moscow. In the middle of this peaceful battlefield,
both artists impose their will to launch a project in
agreement with time and current fashion trends. In
contrast to the radicals, their statement is neither
violent nor in protest but simply covering the covers
of magazines and film posters.
With an aesthetic stemming from social realism
(a privilege of the soviet period), their paintings
illustrate a close connection to Pop Art; the central
character arises from imagery of mass. With the will
to fade as artists, they have decided to create public
images like the social paintings of the previous
century. But, the world has changed. The wall has
fallen and the empire has collapsed leaving this
place to a new ideology of consumption.
Their social paintings have been adapted to a new
reality where we see magnificent women, film actors,
animals, comic strip heroes... Just as the capitalist
dream extended through the entire earth, Dubossarsky
and Vinogradov want to reach a global audience.
Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky
want to develop a transparent, understandable
painting that speaks a universal language. But their
works is addressed particularly to Russia. In 1994,
Russia emerged out of Perestroika while a certain
fear of the future remained. Everything needed to be
made, but without precedent to guide them.
Extract from :
http://www.finearttv/en/fine-art/uncovered/
dubossarsky-and-vinogradov
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Dubossarsky & Vinogradov
Cheburek, 2010
145 x 195 cm
Oil on canvas

AES+F
Tatiana Arzamasova (b.1955)
Lev Evzovich (b.1958)
Evgeny Svyatsky (b.1957)
Vladimir Fridkes (b.1956)
Europe - Europe, 2007-2008
Installation (porcelain sculpture, cabinet)
The shepherdesses, dandies, ladies and cavaliers who
were the traditional heroes of porcelain compositions
of the 18th century play new roles in the Europe of the
third millennium.
The conflict between ethnic Europeans and Europe’s
guests is transformed in to its complete opposite –
love. Types and poses characteristic of gallant scenes
are now occupied by contemporary heroes. Immigrants
and police officers, skinheads and Turkish girls, business
women and migrant workers, Chinese factory girls and
their managers indulge in courtship.
In this installation, seven porcelain compositions are
arranged on the glass shelves of a Karelian birch cabinet.
20, avenue de la Costa
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16

AES+F
Europe-Europe, 2008
214 x 90 x 45 cm
Seven hand-painted porcelain figurines in an wood and class neoclassical cabinet
3/7
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Sergey
Shekhovtsov (b. 1969)
"Animal or human being, which one is the most
human " : this is the question that Sergey asks to us
in his new project "Zoo". With his sculptures in sponge,
he creates daily reality productions in miniature,
showing our relations with animals. In a zoo, a young
girl points her finger to a scared monkey in the corner
of an imaginary cage. The child moans to her parents
that the animal stole her toy. Yet she seems to be the
aggressor, a plastic gun in hand, face to the frightened
captive. By that simple little stage, the artist shows us
the similarities between humans and animals, through
their emotions and their behaviours, where one stands
as a mirror for the other and vice-versa. Like in his
previous works "Pigeons" and "Cinema", he stresses
"the interaction between reality and fiction, between
the one who is looking and the other who is looked at".
20, avenue de la Costa
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info@sem-art.mc
www.sem-art.mc
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Sergey Shekhovtsov
Trône, 2007
200 x 70 x 70 cm
Sculpture en mousse et spray

Electroboutique
Alexei Shulgin (b.1963)
Aristarkh Chernyshev (b. 1968)
3G International, 2010
Light sculpture
A giant distorted iPhone 3G, shaped as Tatlin’s
Monument to the 3d International. Tatlin’s work is
considered one of the avant-garde icons, whereas
iPhone is a bright techno-consumerist icon of today.
Back in the 20’s of the last centuries avant-garde
artists have invented design as a way to bring art into
people’s homes. During the 20’s century designers were
gradually taking artistic ideas and implementing them
into product design. Today we see companies claiming
their products are art objects themselves; art has to redefine
its role in the society again. The Monument to
3G links together the beginning and the current state of
nearly a century of art-to-design dialogue and follows
the strategy of re-claiming the designers’ ideas back
into art.
Commercial Protest, 2007
Mediaobject
It is difficult to protest these days against capitalism,
especially if you are a member of capitalist society and
enjoy all its benefits. Any convincing form of protest very
soon gets appropriated by the system and starts being
used for its sake: in politics, in advertisement, in design,
etc. But we want to protest - and offer a new, realistic
form: Commercial Protest. We protest in the form of a
critical but/and commercially suitable art work.
Commercial Protest reveals the essence of modern
people; it shows what we are all made of. A viewer
has their portrait a mosaic made out of transnational
companies logos (variant: consumer goods). These
images are globally recognizable and constitute the
visual language of today. The supermarket cart that
contains the TV set emphasizes the ugliness of the
ultimately consumerist world. We protest against such
state of things with this piece and set a fair price on it.
20, avenue de la Costa
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Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
info@sem-art.mc
www.sem-art.mc
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Electroboutique
3G International, 2010
Sculpture: 100 x 70 x 70 cm
Podium: 80 x 80 x 10 cm
Fiberglass, LEDs, transparent film, electronics

Arseniy
Zhilyaev (b. 1984)
Design Macht Frei
Today, in our contemporary world, even when we make
such routine gestures as consuming information in the
Internet, getting dressed for a party, sharing photos on
a social network – we turn into machines that shift and
move capital. The sphere of the design became equal
to that of the real production. We are used to such
phrases as political design, self-design etc. The world
has been almost fully designed over, there is control
even where we seem and meant to have freedom and
self-expression. Shelves at home can become a slogan.
Home – factory of dreams. Dreams become nightmares.
Design Macht Frei (white) – is a fragment of installation
which explores transformations of labour.
20, avenue de la Costa
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Arseniy Zhilyaev
Design Macht Frei , 2011
228 x 66 cm
Wood

Sergey
Bratkov (b.1960)
Born 1960 in Kharkov, Ukraine. Graduated Repin Art
College, Kharkov, Ukraine, 1978; Polytechnical Academy,
Kharkov, Ukraine (department of industrial electronics),
1983. In 1994 organized “Fast reaction group”with Boris
Michailov, Sergei Salonsky and Victoria Michailova.
In 2010 took the first prize of the 5th Annual All-
Russian Awards in the field of contemporary visual
art «Innovation» for his video installation «Balaklavsky
Drive».
Since 2000 lives in Moscow, Russia.
Regina Gallery
Selected solo exhibitions/ Expositions solos
2010
• Glory Days. Deichtor Hallen. Aktuelle
Kunst Haus der Photographie.
Hamburg, Germany
• Ukraine. Pinchuk Art Centre. Kiev, Ukraine
• Male games. Espacio Minimo Gallery.
Madrid, Spain
• How much Deweer Gallery.
Otegem, Belgium
2009
• Balaklavsky Drive. REGINA Gallery.
Moscow, Russia
• GLORY DAYS. Canal de Isabel II.
Madrid, Spain
2008
• GLORY DAYS. Fotomuseum.
Winterthur, Switzerland
• Searching for horizon. REGINA
gallery. Moscow
• Searching for horizon. Transit gallery.
Mechelen, Belgium
2007
• BALTIC Centre for Contemporary
Art. Gateshead, UK
2006
• Dream rooms. Deweer gallery.
Otegem, Belgium
• Part of my life. Moscow Museum of
Contemporary Art. Moscow, Russia
• SPA. REGINA gallery. Moscow, Russia
• Misanthrope. Espacio Minimo Gallery.
Madrid, Spain
2005
• S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum for
Actuele Kunst. Ghent, Belgium
• Collecti@n. Torch gallery,
Amsterdam. The Netherlands
2004
• Seven. REGINA Gallery. Moscow, Russia
• Birds. Galerie Anita Beckers.
Frankfurt, Germany
2003
• Steelworkers. Transit Gallery.
Mechelen, Belgium
• Kids. Espacio Minimo Gallery. Madrid,
Spain
2002
• My Moscow. REGINA Gallery.
Moscow, Russia
• www.girls.ru. LipanjePuntin Gallery.
Trieste, Italy
• Djeti-Kinder-Kids. Kunstverein
Rosenheim. Rosenheim, Germany
2000
• Kids. REGINA Gallery. Moscow, Russia
1997
• The Daily Journal of Chicatilo. Galerie
in der BrotFabrik. Berlin, Germany
1995
• In the Haystacks. Galerie in der
BrotFabrik. Berlin, Germany
1992
• Forum Stadtpark. Graz, Austria
Selected group exhibitions
2010
• Art to spend time. M’ARS Center for
Contemporary Arts. Moscow, Russia
• Workers&Philosophers. Moscow
School of Management SKOLKOVO.
Skolkovo, Moscow Region, Russia
• What’s up Sea Rauma Biennale
Balticum. Rauma Art Museum.
Rauma, Finland
• Diary of a madman. REGINA Gallery.
Moscow, Russia
• Futurology. Center for Contemporary
Culture GARAGE. Moscow, Russia
2009
• Russian Lettrism. Central House of
Artist. Moscow, Russia
• Future depends on you. New Rules.
Moscow Museum of Modern Art.
Moscow, Russia
2007
• Russia, The life and adventures of
shed number XII. Collins Building.
Miami, USA
• 15 anos tiene mi amor. Galeria
Espacio Minimo. Madrid, Spain
• So Close/So Far Away. Be PART.
Waregem, Belgium
• Vagina is my motherland. 52th
Venice Biennale. Ukrainian Pavilion.
Venice, Italy
• On Geekdom. Parallel project of
Art Athina. Curated by V.Misiano.
Athens, Greece
• 2nd Moscow bienalle. Moscow, Russia
2004
• Manifesta5. San Sebastian, Spain
• Moscow-Berlin 1950-2000. Central
Historical Museum. Moscow, Russia
2003
• Berlin-Moscow 1950-2000. Martin-
Gropius-Bau. Berlin, Germany
• 50th Venice Biennale. Russian
Pavilion. Venice, Italy
• Horizons of Reality. MUHKA Museum of
Contemporary art. Antwerp, Belgium
2002
• Sans Consentement. CAN. Neuchatel,
Switzerland
• Shock&Show. Group 78. Trieste, Italy
• 25th Sao Paolo Bienal. Sao Paolo,
Brasil
2001
• Winter Exhibition. Institute of Visual
Arts. University of Wisconsin.
Milwaukee, USA
1999
• After the Wall. Moderna Museet.
Stockholm, Sweden
• 3rd Triennale of Photography.Graz,
Austria
• Regards sur l’Ukraine.Passage du
Retz. Paris, France
• The Future is Now. Ukrainian Art of
90s. Museum of Contemporary Art.
Zagreb, Croatia
1995
• If I Were A German (Mikhailov, Solonsky,
Bratkov). Galerie Andreas Weiss.
• Galerie in der BrotFabrik. Berlin,
Germany
• Project for Europe. Turbine Hall.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Public collections/ Collectios publiques
• MUHKA Museum of Contemporary
Art. Antwerp, Belgium
• Museum of Contemporary Art.
Zagreb, Croatia
• Museum of Photography. Boston, USA
• Zimmerli Art Museum. New
Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
• Museum of Contemporary Art.
Milwaukee, USA
• S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary
Art. Gent, Belgium
• MARTa Herford Museum of
Contemporary Art. Herford, Gemany
• Centro Galego de Arte
Contemporanea. Galicia, Spain
• Pinchuk Art Centre. Kiev, Ukraine
• Ekaterina Foundation. Moscow, Russia
• FRAC. Paris, France
• Fotomuseum Winterthur.Winterthur,
Switzerland
• MUHKA -Museée d’art
contemporaind’Anvers, Belgique
• Musée d’art contemporain. Zagreb,
Croatie.
• Musée de la photographie de
Boston, USA
• Le Zimmerli Art Museum du New
Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
• Musée d’art contemporain de
Milwaukee, USA
• S.M.A.K-Musée d’art contemporain
de Gand, Belgique
• MARTa –Musée d’art contemporain
Herford, Allemagne
• Centre galicien d’art contemporain,
Espagne
• Le « Pinchuk Art Centre » de Kiev,
Ukraine
• Fondation Ekaterina. Moscou, Russie
• FRAC. Paris, France
• Musée de la photographie de
Winterthour, Suisse
24

25
Sergey Bratkov
Amber room, 2010
70 x 190 cm
photo print
Edition of 5

Irina
Davis (b.1974)
Because of the devastation of World War II, Russian
«girls» in the ‘40s and ‘50s were taught to be tough
and work hard. I am saddened by the fact that Russia
never had the chance to enjoy the happy pin-up times
of America’s postwar period. In fact, cheerful American
pin-up art was considered in Soviet Russia to be
politically incorrect, decadent and flat-out immoral, the
product of a culture that could never understand the
true nature of the human condition.
By photographing exclusively Russian immigrant
women in traditional all-American pin-up poses, I am
inventing my own genre of Russian pin-up. My concept
is to portray pure beauty, femininity and sexuality, not
to objectify but to empower. To those who identify the
clues in my work, hidden to most non-Russian eyes, I am
telling the story of a crisis of Russian national identity,
and the frustration and confusion of self-identification
with the Old Country, the New World and a diaspora
caught between them. My goal is to bridge the gap and
seduce the spectator with alluring imagery, trapping
him into empathizing with a foreign element.
extract from http://www.irinadavis.com
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
info@sem-art.mc
www.sem-art.mc
26

27
Irina Davis
Ksusha from the Series Pin-Up Girls, 2008
166 x 111 cm
Inkjet print, waterlocour on paper
1/3

Julia
Zastava (b. 1982)
The work “Medusa Gorgon” is one of the seven pieces
about Gods from Greek mythology forming series titled
“Inside the thing”. This is not a portrait of a fictitious
personage, but instead a rendering of the emotion
this personage projects – an attempt to visualise the
meaning. Here. Medusa is beautiful and majestic, and
her impurity becomes only visible through surface
distortion and skin patches on cheeks and arms.
I usually work with paintings and video. I try to
combine conceptualism with psychedelic style. I
am interested in a zero emotional state of a human
being, when one is emotionally in standby mode and
one’s consciousness begins to make its own absurd
casual chain of associations. It is something between a
personality disorder and a trippy system. The presence
of the absence.
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
info@sem-art.mc
www.sem-art.mc
28

29
Julia Zastava
Medusa Gorgon, 2010
110 x 155 cm
Watercolor, oil and pencils on canvas

march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
info@sem-art.mc
www.sem-art.mc
30

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Marc chagall
L’offrande au soleil rouge, circa. 1978
16 x 22 cm
Huile et encre de Chine sur carton entoilé.
Marc chagall
Esquisse d’après le tableau “Couple dans le paysage bleu”, 1969-1971, circa 1975
24 x 19 cm
Huile sur toile
Marc chagall
Autour du cirque “Les acrobates”, 1967
16 x 22 cm
Huile sur carton entoilé
Marc chagall
Le peintre et le coq rouge, circa 1966
24,5 x 20 cm
Huile sur contreplaqué
Marc chagall
Esquisse pour le tableau “La fenêtre”, 1959
19 x 24 cm
Huile sur toile
31

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Marc chagall
Le clown au visage bleu, circa 1980
16 x 22 cm
Huile, gouache et encre de Chine sur isorel
Marc chagall
Dans le ciel de Saint-Paul, circa 1980
19 x 24 cm
Huile sur isorel
Marc chagall
La lecture, circa 1978
16 x 22 cm
Huile, encre de Chine et crayons de couleurs sur carton entoilé
Marc chagall
Autour du nu, circa 1982
19 x 27 cm
Huile sur isorel
Marc chagall
Dans l’arène du cirque, circa 1980
16 x 22 cm
Huile sur isorel
32

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Marc chagall
Le bouquet jaune, circa 1975
16 x 22 cm
Huile, encre de Chine et pastel sur carton entoilé.
Marc chagall
Le bouquet vert dans le ciel du village, 1980-1982
Huile sur carton
Marc chagall
Le roi David, 1980
16 x 24 cm
Huile, Tempera, encre de Chine et pastel sur toile
Marc chagall
L’admiration, circa 1980
19 x 24 cm
Huile, aquarelle et encre de Chine sur isorel.
Marc chagall
L’âne blanc dans le bouquet, 1960-1965
15,5 x 25,5 cm
Huile sur isorel
33

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Marc chagall
Arbre fleuri sur fond bleu, 1967
16 x 22 cm
Huile sur toile
Marc chagall
Le trapéziste, 1978-1980
13 x 20,5 cm
Huile sur bois
Marc chagall
La Sirène aux cheveux rouges, 1957-1958
37,7 x 25 cm
Huile sur contreplaqué
Marc chagall
Profil du peintre, circa 1982
20 x 20 cm
Huile sur toile
Marc chagall
Le peintre au village, 1980-1982
14 x 22 cm
Huile sur carton entoilé
34

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
The Hand, 2009
Sculpture : 43 x 61 x 50.7 cm
Plinth: 46 x 67 x 120 cm
Marbre
8/9
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
Untitled, 2005
35 x 26.3 cm
Coloured pencil and ink on paper
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
Flying # 20 from the Flying Paintings series, 2009
282 x 189 cm
Oil on canvas
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
Olga Lvovna Came, 1994
19 x 26.5 cm
Pencil on paper
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
Painting #13 from Under the Snow series, 2005
172 x 372 cm
Oil on canvas
35

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Erik Bulatov
Horizontale III, 1966-2005
140 x 140 cm
Oil on canvas
Erik Bulatov
“O”, 2008
35,6 x 34,6 x 4 cm
Crayon on paper
Erik Bulatov
“O”, 2008
26 x 35,5 x 4 cm
Crayon on paper
Erik Bulatov
L’eau coulait, 2000
35,6 x 34,6 cm
Crayon on paper
Makarevich & Elagina
Mushrooms of the Russian Avant Garde, 2004-2008
100 x 70 x 8 cm
Wood, ceramics, canvas, acrylic
36

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Makarevich & Elagina
Mushrooms of the Russian Avant Garde, 2004-2008
100 x 70 x 8 cm
Wood, ceramics, canvas, acrylic
Makarevich & Elagina
Arhitekton, 2004-2008
260 x 80 cm
Mixed media
Dubossarsky & Vinogradov
Cheburek, 2010
145 x 195 cm
Oil on canvas
Dubossarsky & Vinogradov
On the Wave of my Memory, 2010
145 x 195 cm
Oil on canvas
AES+F
Europe-Europe, 2008
214 x 90 x 45 cm
Seven hand-painted porcelain figurines in an wood and class neoclassical
cabinet
3/7
37

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Sergey Shekhovtsov
Trône, 2007
200 x 70 x 70 cm
Sculpture en mousse et spray
Sergey Shekhovtsov
Projet « Zoo », Fillette, 2006
76 x 60 x 42 cm
sculpture en mousse et peinture acrylique
Sergey Shekhovtsov
Projet « Zoo », Petit garçon, 2006
80 x 30 x 24 cm
Sculpture en mousse et peinture acrylique
Sergey Shekhovtsov
Karl Lagarfeld, 2004
165 x 50 x 35 cm
Sculpture en mousse et spray
Electroboutique
3G International, 2010
Sculpture: 100 x 70 x 70 cm
Podium: 80 x 80 x 10 cm
Fiberglass, LEDs, transparent film, electronics
38

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Electroboutique
Commercial Protest, 2007
TV: 32’’
Cart: 80 x 100 cm
LCD screen, supermarket cart
2/7
Arseniy Zhilyaev
Design Macht Frei , 2011
228 x 66 cm
Wood
Sergey Bratkov
Amber room, 2010
70 x 190cm
photo print
Edition of 5
Irina Davis
Ksusha from the Series Pin-Up Girls, 2008
166 x 111 cm
Inkjet print, waterlocour on paper
1/3
Irina Davis
Alenushka from the Series Pin-Up Girls, 2006
166 x 111 cm
Inkjet print, waterlocour on paper
2/3
39

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
List of exhibited works
Julia Zastava
Medusa Gorgon, 2010
110 x 155 cm
Watercolor, oil and pencils on canvas
40

RUSSIAN ART
march 18 th to april 29 th , 2011
Acknowledgements
The organization of this exhibition has been a fascinating and enjoyable project, which would never have been
possible without the precious help of Mr Vladimir and Mrs Ekaterina Semenikhin, who are genuinely kind-hearted
people, and thanks to the professionalism and great human qualities of Lena Evstafieva.
Special thanks go to:
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
Erik Bulatov
Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina
Vladimir Dubossarsky & Alexander Vinogradov
AES+F
Sergey Shekhovtsov
Electroboutique
Arseniy Zhilyaev
Sergey Bratkov
Irina Davis
Julia Zastava
Aidan Gallery
ARNDT Gallery
Galerie Orel Art
Sprovieri Gallery
Triumph Gallery
XL Gallery
Regina Gallery
Safia El Malqui
41

Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm
Saturday by appointment
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
info@sem-art.mc
www.sem-art.mc