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1/4/2014

Club of Friends

Calvert 22, London

Their artworks were once the backdrops for underground rock concerts - now they have moved into museums. Calvert 22 Gallery presents the first UK exhibition of two Russian underground movements started by the visionary artist Timur Novikov.

In the early 1980s, during the last decade of the Soviet regime, the New Artists Group was founded and began making their wild paintings influenced by German Expressionism, Pop Art and Primitivism. First operating out of a communal flat and then an old apartment, they held a series of influential exhibitions, gigs, screenings and parties. Working collectively and without boundaries they combined fine art with youth culture, music, cinema, fashion and performance.

Artists such as Sergei ‘Afrika’ Bugaev became a cult figure for his part in the art-house fi lm - Assa, whilst painters such as Oleg Kotelnikov created free, heavily brush stroked paintings. In 1989, during a critical time of political, ideological and economic transition in Soviet Russia, Novikov started a second influential movement, the New Academy, a movement that sought to encourage a return to the classical ideals of ancient Greece. Dressed as dandies with frock coats and velvet dresses, the artists searched out classical music and rare brooks, organising exhibitions during the 1990s that celebrated classical ideals of beauty and physical perfection.

The New Academy works flirted with sexual ambiguity and homoeroticism. Although guarded about his own sexual orientation, Georgy Guryanov created heart-stoppingly beautiful, eroticised drawings and paintings of athletes, sailors and soldiers. And flamboyant performance artist Vlad Mamyshev Monroe used himself as a canvas, dressing up and impersonating historical characters including Marilyn Monroe.

Club of Friends showcases the work and life of an extraordinary generation of figures whose experiments in art, collective creative practice and sexual representation remain groundbreaking to this day.

Works on display include textiles, film, paintings, graphics, costumes and music from extraordinary video works such as Ventslova's highly kitsch Mireille (1995) to Timur Novikov’s flag-like fabric pieces.

Moving between art forms, many of the artists participated in the legendary experimental rock scene with Pop Mechanica and in particular with the band Kino for which Novikov was a designer. Ephemera on show includes posters, autographs, photographs, club flyers and album covers that chart their relationship with international artists such as Brian Eno, Andy Warhol and John Cage. Coming to the UK for the first time, this exhibition maps the untold story of Russia in the 1980s and 1990s, showcasing two important movements that changed the face of contemporary art in Russia today.

The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

The exhibition is part of the official programme of the UK-Russia Year of Culture, the largest ever showcase of cultural projects to take place. More than 250 events across culture, science, education and sport are planned for both countries throughout the year.

About Calvert 22 Gallery
Calvert 22 Gallery is the UK’s only not-for-profit institution dedicated to the presentation of contemporary art from Russia and Eastern Europe. It presents a dynamic programme of exhibitions, talks and cross-disciplinary events with both emergent and established artists. Founded in 2009 by Nonna Materkova, a Russian-born, London based economist, Calvert 22 Gallery aims to be a significant voice on the international cultural landscape, gathering the most active voices from the region to investigate current directions in artistic practice and theory relating to the 'former East'.
The gallery is a project of the Calvert 22 Foundation, an organisation dedicated to the contemporary art and culture of Russia and Eastern Europe. The foundation is active in four main areas — art, culture, research and learning — each of which has its own specific project. The strategic partner of Calvert 22 Foundation is VTB Capital.

Strategic partner
VTB Capital, the Investment Business of VTB Group, is one of the three strategic business arms of VTB Group, along with the corporate and retail businesses. Since its foundation in 2008, VTB Capital has taken part in more than 460 ECM and DCM deals, which were instrumental in attracting more than USD 189bn worth of investments to Russia and CIS.
VTB Capital offers a full range of investment banking products and services to Russian and international clients, focusing on arranging operations in the debt, equity, global commodities markets, developing investment and asset management, advising clients on M&A and ECM deals in Russia and abroad.
VTB Capital holds top positions in the debt and equity capital markets, as well as M&A, in Russia, CIS and CEE according to the league tables for 2011-2013 by Dealogic, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.
VTB Capital operates in Moscow, London, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Sofia, Kiev, New York, Paris, Vienna with headquarters in Moscow.

Image: Konstantin Goncharov, Alexei Sokolov, Olga Tobreluts, Ekaterina Andreeva, Initiation of Lucius. Illustration to Apuleius The Golden Ass. Timur in the role of the high priest of Isis, 1994 Digital print on paper Courtesy of Ekaterina Andreeva and Gennady Pliskin

For further information and press images please contact Penny Sychrava PR on 0796 791 5339 or pennysychrava@hotmail.com

Calvert 22 Gallery
22 Calvert Avenue, London, UK, E2 7JP
allery Opening Hours:

Wednesday - Sunday: 12pm - 6pm

Open until 9pm on the first Thursday of every month as part of First Thursdays
Entry to the gallery is FREE

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