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24/11/2014

Olga Chernysheva

Pace London, London

London—Pace London is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Moscow-based artist Olga Chernysheva. The exhibition will be on view from 26 November 2014 to 17 January 2015 at 6–10 Lexington Street. The first presentation of Chernysheva’s work at Pace, this exhibition will feature selections of her photography capturing the streets of Moscow alongside drawings, videos and a projection.

Moving fluidly between media, Chernysheva offers a lens into the world of post-Soviet Russia. She became well known in the 1990s for her exploration of the ironies and idiosyncrasies to emerge in the aftermath of the USSR’s dissolution. Fascinated with capitalism and individualism as notions once alien to Russian life, Chernysheva depicts the residuals of collectivism, once central to the Russian experience, in tension with the domineering tendencies of individualism and consumerism that permeate the public sphere of her home in Moscow.

The photographs on view illustrate Chernysheva’s sharp eye for the sociological value of the quotidian. She documents both the general and specific in her photographs of daily life. Her photographs—always taken from behind—depict the variety of winter hat styles she has seen on strangers in Moscow. The different shapes and colours ensnare the viewer with their formal properties and stage a dialogue about individuality and mass culture, highlighting difference in spite of the uniform composition of each photograph.

Chernysheva’s interest in the mundane reality of street life reveals both an embrace of nineteenth- century Realism and a rejection of the more aggrandizing Socialist Realism that pervaded her childhood. “I work quite consciously with unimportant things, always drawn to places where an event either already happened or has not yet begun,” *1 Chernysheva said. Her work reflects the tradition of Soviet propaganda and its tendency towards conformity and repetition while incorporating the transition to consumer-driven individuality.

This interest finds its roots in her academic training and childhood. Part of the last generation of artists who grew up during the Soviet Union, Chernysheva studied in Moscow in the mid-1980s, training in socialist modes of art production. Her development out of such a rigid system has informed her media-spanning observations of contemporary Russian life. “Her ecological talent to transform life’s everyday absurdity into meaningful art is the hallmark of Chernysheva,” wrote Ekaterina Andreeva. “It stems from a strong desire to be in contact with the world and from her belief in the practical magic of art.

Pace’s exhibition coincides with Keeping Sight at M HKA—Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, an exhibition in which Chernysheva responds to and displays work alongside pieces from the museum’s permanent collection. Keeping Sight remains on view to 18 January 2015.

Image: Olga Chernysheva, Untitled, Hat Series, 2000, optocal c-print

Press Contact:
Nicolas Smirnoff, nicolas@pacegallery.com, +44 203 206 7613

Opening: Tuesday 25 November 2014, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Pace London
6 Burlington Gardens
open to the public Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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