NAÏVE... NO (Naïve, But)
Naïve and professional art in one exhibition
In the last few years, there have been several exhibitions of Russian naïve art, but NAÏVE... NO (Naïve, But) at MMOMA takes a different approach. It juxtaposes art by professional artists from the 20th and 21st centuries — like Mikhail Larionov, Ilya Mashkov, Konstantin Zvyozdochetov and even Kazimir Malevich — with works by genuine naïve artists, who had no formal training. The latter group features artists such as Niko Pirosmani, Katya Medvedeva and Yelena Volkova.
BRAT FILM FEST
Quirky videos from a prominent photographer
BRAT FILM FEST is a new project by Sergey Bratkov, a Ukrainian-born photographer known for his provocative art. The festival has converted Regina, one of Moscow’s oldest galleries, into a small movie theater with a proper screen and rows of chairs. The gallery is showing 19 short films shot by Bratkov and his brother Yury from 2008 to 2016 during visits to their parents’ house in a village near Kharkiv, Ukraine. Films with titles like “Gagarin” and “Exchange Beauty for Kerosene” present a humorous commentary on the events of those years.
Geltser: Collection
Ballerina’s masterpieces reunited
The Nashi Khudozhniki gallery presents highlights from the famous collection of Yekaterina Geltser (1876–1962), a prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Theater and an avid art collector. Contemporaries used to call her collection “a little branch of the Tretyakov Gallery.” The collection has been long lost, but Nashi Khudozhniki has managed to reunite 40 masterpieces, including works by greats such as Isaac Levitan, Mikhail Vrubel, Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov. Some of the works are on loan from the Tretyakov Gallery or Bakhrushin Theater Museum, others are from private collections. Nashi Khudozhniki has also published a catalogue, which includes 80 artworks that used to belong to the famous ballet dancer.
Ilya Dolgov: Reef
Investigating man’s relationship to nature
Voronezh-born Dolgov is one of the brightest stars on Russia’s contemporary art scene. Twice nominated for the Kandinsky Prize, he also obtained a grant from the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in 2013. One of the key concerns that Dolgov’s work addresses is nature and how we interact with it. His “Reef” installation continues his exploration of the relationship between man and nature: The work features canvases hanging over tidal lines of reed flotsam, rivers of sand, and wire sculptures suspended over rocks.
Wool & Potatoes
Dramatic art piece and quest combined
Part of the Irish Week festival, this unusual
show is part exhibit, part detective story.
Artist Valery Korchagin has created a series
of works based on the life of a mythical
Soviet peasant named Ivan Skotinin, whose
decaying archive was supposedly discovered
in the attic of a house in the Volga region.
But doubts gradually emerge about the true
nature of Skotinin’s identity and the secrets
held by his old cottage.
Giovanni Gastel: Canons of Beauty
Retrospective of top Italian photographer Internationally acclaimed fashion photographer
Giovanni Gastel has created a distinctive
signature style in over 40 years exploring
the nature of beauty. Gastel has never shied
away from experimentation: His black and
white and sepia-toned pictures often stray
into an ethereal realm of poetry and lyricism.
His pictures have appeared on the covers
and inside magazines such as Harper’s
Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, Donna and Mondo, and
have been exhibited all over the world.
Until May 5
lumiere brothers Center for Photography
3 bolotnaya naberezhnaya, bldg. 1
Metro Kropotkinskaya
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