2023

An exhibition at Hunter College Art Gallery, New York City, curated by Daniel Bozhkov, Joachim Pissarro, and Dr. Olga Zaikina, with curatorial graduate fellow Victoria Borisova. Open Sept 9 - Oct 28, 2023.

Moscow Conceptualism began as an alternative underground art world in the late Soviet Union. Its unofficial status shaped its artistic methods and theoretical framework. The exhibition includes original objects, archival materials, and working models of original artworks, alongside new projects created by Moscow Conceptualists in collaboration with art and art history students and faculty at Hunter College. Distortions is an experiment in intergenerational and cross-cultural collaboration. It aims to transform the gallery into a two-month-long forum exploring how existing artworks can be activated to create new living situations, and how documents can be used beyond the preservation of the past.

Participating artists and art groups 

Yuri Albert (born 1959 in Moscow, lives and works in Cologne), 

Collective Actions (active 1976–present), 

Gnezdo (active 1974–79), 

Sabine Hänsgen (born 1955 in Düsseldorf, lives and works in Bochum, Germany),

Andrei Monastyrski (born 1949 in Pechenga, Russia, lives and works in Moscow), 

Victor Skersis (born 1956 in Moscow, lives and works in Bethlehem, PA), 

Nadezhda Stolpovskaya (born 1959 in Moscow, lives and works in Cologne, Germany), 

SZ Group (active 1980-84, 1989, 1990), 

Vadim Zakharov (born 1959 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, lives and works in Berlin, Germany).

The exhibition Distortions: Moscow Conceptualists Working Today was developed during a two-semester graduate curatorial seminar at Hunter College (in academic year 2022-23) led by professors Daniel Bozhkov and Joachim Pissarro with Dr. Olga Zaikina. It included studio art students: Lauren Cline, Tucker Claxton, LeLe Dai, Paula De Martino, Alicia Ehni, Stevie Knauss, Milly Skelington, Johnny Sagan; and art history students: Caitlin Anklam, Victoria Borisova, Jay Bravo, Andrea Dauhajre, Curtis Eckley, Daniel Kuzinez, Jake Robinson. Visiting scholar Virginia Marano, PhD Candidate, University of Zürich, Switzerland.

Publication
In concert with the exhibition, the Hunter College Art Galleries are producing a publication (for release in October 2023) that chronicles the development of the concept of the show over the two-semester graduate curatorial seminar, as well as describes all the projects - new and old - Moscow Conceptualists presented in the exhibition.