Press Release
CALVERT 22 GALLERY EXHIBITION PROGRAMME – 2014
Club of Friends / Close and Far / Beyond Zero
To mark the UK-Russia Year of Culture 2014, Calvert 22 Gallery will be mounting a programme of
exhibitions and associated events throughout 2014 that examine key aspects of contemporary Russian visual
culture.
The experimental, multi-disciplinary practice of the artists, filmmakers and musicians who thrived in the
final years of the Soviet Union and early post-Perestroika Russia, is showcased for the first time in the UK.
Photography and its link to land, the nation and its people is explored from its roots in tsarist Russia from
the early 20th century up to the present day. And space, both inner and outer, is marked by the great nonobjective paintings of Kazimir Malevich in the same breath as the Russian cosmonauts.
As a whole, Calvert 22 Gallery’s exhibitions for 2014 form a cycle that celebrates groundbreaking
moments in Russian art and science and demonstrates the drive to explore and experiment that has
underpinned the growth of visual culture in Russia for a century.
Club of Friends. Timur Novikov’s New Artists and the New Academy
2 April – 25 M ay
Club of Friends presents work by two groups of artists who emerged in St Petersburg in the 1980s and 1990s
- the New Artists and the New Academy - two important movements that changed the face of
contemporary art in Russia. Both were founded by artist and visionary Timur Novikov.
Calvert 22 Gallery, 22 Calvert Avenue, London, UK, E2 7JP
www.calvert22.org
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Novikov brought together groups of artists, film-makers, composers and musicians. First operating out of a
communal flat and then an old apartment, the New Artists 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.
In 1989, during a critical time of political, ideological and economic transition in Soviet Russia, Novikov
decided to radically change his aesthetic. The New Artists became the New Academy, a movement that
sought to encourage a return to the classical ideals of ancient Greece and Rome and celebrated ideals of
beauty and physical perfection.
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.
Close and Far: Russian Photography Now
Curated by Kate Bush
18 June – 17 August
A new generation of artists and photographers is fast emerging inside Russia. Close and Far introduces some
of the country’s most original young voices, alongside the extraordinary work of Sergei ProkudinGorsky, a pre-revolutionary master whose work has only recently been rediscovered, and will be shown for
the first time in the United Kingdom.
When Nicholas II, the last tsar, personally commissioned Prokudin-Gorsky, an early pioneer of colour
photography, to document his vast empire in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution, he presided
over the largest territory in the world. Romanov Russia extended from Finland to Turkestan, and from
Poland to Siberia. Russia is smaller now, yet it is still the largest country in the world, and still a land of
dramatic extremes and dramatic diversity. Where Prokudin-Gorsky witnessed first-hand the effects of
galloping Russian colonisation, as well as the early stirrings of industrialisation, today’s young artists are
working in the aftermath of that empire’s collapse, grappling both with its past and with its future.
Close and Far showcases the work of rising stars: Alexander Gronsky, Dmitry Venkov, Taus
M akhacheva, Olya Ivanova and M ax Sher. The exhibition is curated by Kate Bush.
Calvert 22 Gallery, 22 Calvert Avenue, London, UK, E2 7JP
www.calvert22.org
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Beyond Zero
8 October – 30 November
Two great cultural events occurred in 20th century Russia that changed our way of looking and thinking
about the world - the emergence of non-objective art and the development of the Soviet Union’s space
programme. The cultural symbiosis of inner and outer space that these two movements exemplify is the
starting point for Beyond Zero.
The exhibition celebrates the pioneering spirit in art and science through which human creativity unleashed
the potential of new orders. From the analytical colour theory of radical Russian artists and the prophetic
vision of film makers in the pre-Sputnik age to the contemporary work of today’s artists and architects in
Russia, Beyond Zero acknowledges Kazimir M alevich with his famous Last Futuristic Exhibition of
Paintings 0.10 and Alexey Leonov, the first man to walk in outer space.
Beyond Zero includes works from avant-garde artist and composer M ikhail M atyushin, as well as a host
of contemporary artists inspired by the legacy of Soviet space exploration and its reflection on art, literature
and cinema, including the films of legendary cinematographer Pavel Klushantsev.
Admission is free to all exhibitions at Calvert 22 Gallery. Opening hours: W ednesday Sunday: 12pm - 6pm. Open until 9pm on the first Thursday of every m onth as part of First
Thursdays
calvert22.org
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
www.calvert22.org
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Notes to Editors
•
Club of Friends is organised in collaboration with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art
•
All three exhibitions are 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.
Calvert 22 Gallery is an initiative of the Calvert 22 Foundation
www.calvert22foundation.org
•
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 300 ECM and DCM deals, which were instrumental in attracting more
than USD 125.5bn worth of investments to Russia and CIS.
VTB Capital offers a full range of investment banking products and services, 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.
According to Dealogic, 2011 league tables show that VTB Capital is #1 Equity and Bond bookrunner
in Eastern Europe, as well as #1 financial advisor to Russia and the CIS M&A by deal value.
In 2011 and 2012 VTB Capital research team was ranked #1 in Thomson Reuters Extel Survey and
Institutional Investor All-Russia Investor Survey.
VTB Capital operates in Moscow, London, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Sofia, Kiev, New York,
Paris, Vienna with headquarters in Moscow
Calvert 22 Gallery, 22 Calvert Avenue, London, UK, E2 7JP
www.calvert22.org
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Calvert 22 Gallery, 22 Calvert Avenue, London, UK, E2 7JP
www.calvert22.org