Margarita Pushkina, Founding Director of Cosmoscow Fair reveals details on galleries’ programming at Cosmoscow 2018

Cosmoscow
May 1, 2018 6:25PM

Photo courtesy of Cosmoscow

Cosmoscow, Russia’s only fair for contemporary art will open in a few months and it’s going to be full of pleasant surprises and exceptional discoveries. Our main programming will include both regular and brand new exhibitors from Russia and the rest of the world. But for now I would like to concentrate on certain local participants of Cosmoscow 2018 and what they have in store.

Cosmoscow 2018 will feature a number of Russian participants who hasn’t missed a single edition of the fair since its re-launch in 2014. Among them are Voronezh-based HLAM Gallery (est. 2007) andpop/off/art (est. 2004), one of the leading members of the Moscow art scene. This April the latter was the only Russian gallery participating in Art Brussels 2018. HLAM will display works of Kirill Savelyev (b. 1989) and Cosmoscow 2017 Artist of the Year Ivan Gorshkov (b. 1986). The stand of pop/off/art will feature brand new projects by Vladimir Potapov (b. 1980) and Alexander Plusnin (b. 1981).

Quite a similar matter is with the LAZY MIKE multifunctional project that has participated in Cosmoscow 2017 even before its official opening later that autumn. The project’s pool of artists challenges the limits of visibility and what is considered acceptable in culture. Same as the last year, for Cosmoscow the gallery will pair works by a Russian artist Nikolay Koshelev with Daniel Lergon (b. 1978) whose major subject is the exploration of light effects and experimental use of unusual materials.

Osnova Gallery, a young and dynamic Moscow art space founded in 2014 has chosen works by two artists, whose shows were a huge success ealier this year. One of them is Yelena Popova (b. 1978 whose solo exhibition This Certifies That took place at the gallery in March-April. With soft geometric forms of her compositions Yelena, who lives and works in UK explores the materiality of painting while referring to the oeuvre of Russian Constructivism and Minimalism artists. Another artist is Ian Ginsburg (b. 1988) whose first gallery show The Mechanical Beetle was held at the Osnova in December-February. So far Ginsburg has already established himself as a respected researcher of various models of artistic creativity of the 20th century.

It’s not a first time that a Cosmoscow participant turns its stand into an integral art project with conceptual background. In 2017 the Lumiere Brothers Gallery (est. 2001) presented the 100 Years of Photography, a specially curated project, spanning the history of Soviet photography in 1920–1990. This year the gallery will showcase works by Ruth Orkin, Harold Feinstein, Elliott Erwitt, Howard Schatz.

Another participant of Cosmoscow 2018 with a conceptual approach is the Shaltai Editions, a gallery and an experimental platform specializing in prints and multiples. In collaboration with a group of Russian artists, Shaltai Editions is planning to present a special NATI (New Archive of Limited Edition Art) project. According to the general idea behind the project, the artists are given an envelope to keep the commissioned works. Once opened, the NATI folder can be arranged in such a way that its parts become stands for the works in the envelopes.

Tbilisi-based Erti Gallery will display Tato Akhalkasishvili’s (b.1979) project Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday and Uta Bekaia’s show Kinto Dreams. Akhalkasishvili’s dreamlike landscapes with blurred horizons depict private transcendental feelings and psychological conditions, which usually accompanies the search for the future. Bekaia’s Kinto Dreams represents an artistic attempt to create associative links between contemporary and traditional ritualistic culture.

The 11.12 Gallery (est. 2006) will show works by Alexey Alpatov (b. 1968) and Rinat Voligamsi (b. 1968). Taking to consideration the fact that Voligamsi’s solo exhibition Dvoegorsk took place at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art this winter, 11.12 Gallery stand will provide Cosmoscow guests to purchase museum quality art works.

Among other Cosmoscow 2018 participants are the following galleries: the Triangle Gallery (est. 2015) displaying works of Valery Chtak (b. 1981) and Kirill Lebedev (b. 1984); Gallery 21 (est. 2010) featuring works by Natasha Dahnberg (b. 1969) and Sergey Katran (b. 1970).

With such diverse approaches to selection of artists and conceptual grouping of works and basing only on a small percentage of participating galleries, it is already evident that Cosmoscow 2018 will be an extraordinary overview of country’s contemporary art trends.

There will also be a number of special projects commissioned for the fair. For example, there will be a solo project by Taus Makhacheva (b. 1983) who was named Cosmoscow 2018 Artist of the Year, and a site-specific project Black Diptych (Black Forest and Black Sky) by emerging Russian artist Alexey Martins (b. 1989).

For the first time ever Cosmoscow will feature a thorough presentation of unique Pushkin XXI media art collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Cosmoscow 2018 Museum of the Year.

Carefully prepared Programme with numerous unique events throughout the city will allow Cosmoscow guests to plunge into the dynamic Moscow art scene.

Save the date for Cosmoscow 2018!

6-9 September 2018, Gostiny Dvor, Moscow

Cosmoscow