Grigori Maiofis
dal 6/9/2012 al 19/10/2012
Segnalato da
6/9/2012
Grigori Maiofis
pop / off / art, Berlin
Lessons of Russian. Maiofis plays on the usual cliched view of Russia in a casual and humorous way. It is no coincidence that Sergey Popoff has chosen to open his Berlin gallery with Maiofis' work.
On 7 September, a branch of Moscow’s pop/off/art gallery will open in the Charlottenburg
district of Berlin with a solo exhibition of the St. Petersburg artist Grigori Maiofis’ “Lessons of
Russian”.
Lumbering bears and graceful ballet dancers, nostalgic female nudes and everyday Soviet
realities – Grigori Maiofis plays on the usual clichéd view of Russia in a casual and humorous
way. It is no coincidence that Sergey Popoff has chosen to open his Berlin gallery with Maiofis’
work: his pictures inform our traditional associations with Russia and offer a humorous invitation
to a fascinating intercultural conversation. Such an ironic-philosophical engagement with specific
paradigms and images is one way for the artist to approach the history and lifestyle of his own
country – in the end, Grigori Maiofis himself is “sitting” in the Lessons of Russian.
The new series of works presented in this exhibition consists of twelve large pictures. Maiofis
initially poses the photographs in his studio. After they are developed, the top layer is wiped
away and the barely visible contours are worked up again with bromoil applied with a brush. The
artist uses this elaborate process to give his work a “historic” appearance. At the same time, he
creates a distance from the scenes he stages by means of the constantly recurring bear, which
apparently joins the viewer in watching the performance. This sets up playful confrontations
between past and present, fiction and reality. The exhibition in pop/off/art gallery takes place in
the run-up to the artist’s tour in Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, and Santa Barbara. Grigori Maiofis is
currently one of the best-known artists in Russia. His works are included in many museum
collections all over the world.
Established in Moscow in 2004, pop/off/art gallery will take its place on the international art
market thanks to its new premises on Berlin’s Mommsenstraße, becoming the second Russian
gallery with a permanent presence outside Russia, and the first with a branch in Continental
Europe.
pop/off/art gallery represents both established Russian artists such as Erik Bulatov, Andrey
Grositsky and Arkadi Petrov and current, young Russian trends. The Berlin gallery plans to
introduce artists predominantly from the countries of the former Soviet Union, East and Central
Europe. An exhibition of works by Andrej Grossitzki will open in late October 2012.
Grigori Maiofis (born 1970, in St Petersburg) studied at the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg.
His early works, from 1991 onwards, were focused on digital photography and video. In circa
2000, he switched to classical black and white photography, and from 2003 he experimented
with various analogue photographic techniques. In 2006, Grigori Maiofis won the Betty and Jim
Kasson Award (USA).
From 20 - 23 September 2012, pop/off/art gallery will be exhibiting at VIENNA FAIR The New Contemporary.
Press enquiries:
artpress – Ute Weingarten Elisabethkirchstraße 15 10115 Berlin Tel.: +49 (0)30 48 49 635 0
E-Mail: artpress@uteweingarten.de
Opening: Friday, 7 September 2012, 6pm
pop / off / art Galerie Moskau-Berlin
Mommsenstr. 35 D-10629 Berlin