ARSEN SAVADOV | 'RECENT PAINTINGS'

September 6th - October 6th, 2009

The gallery is pleased to present Arsen Savadov's first solo exhibition in New York.

The artistic debut of Arsen Savadov, a Ukrainian artist, occurred at the end of the 1980's. With the Soviet era not yet over, he joined an international movement that focused on a 'return to painting'. Using aggressive colors, Savadov's massive canvases from this period feature strange and hallucinatory subjects that are referential, irrational, hyper-visual and erotic. Critics referred to this work as Neo-Baroque (17th century Baroque is, in fact, associated with Ukrainian artistic tradition).

In the 1990's, the Neo-Baroque imagination continued to influence Savadov while shifting medium from painting to interactive performance, video and other art forms. His photo-performances include Donbass Chocolate a photo series that pitches visions of sleek men in tutus in post-Soviet era mineshafts. They pose among real miners and all men are ghostly eyed, muscular and covered in coal dust. Another series incorporates fashion models wearing luxurious designer clothing and striking provocative poses in a Ukrainian cemetery. Most disturbing are the vamping poses set in front of real open casket, graveside funerals. The photo performances discuss class struggle, sociopolitical ideology, and issues of sexual identity, religion and the history of art.

In his current exhibition Savadov returns to the medium of painting as part of an 'artistic alchemy' - where painting, as a melting pot of medias, asserts itself as a means of expression for the artist once more. Continuing with the Neo-Baroque aesthetic and its sense of spectacle, these paintings embrace anti-realism with their elaborately embellished imagery. Through provocative sensual narratives and psychedelic rainbow colors, the viewers take part of a contemporary Bacchanalia feast.

As with his earlier work, the painterly canvases display visual overabundance, eroticism and a socio-political referentiality. In this body of work, the Neo-Baroque style does not represents an art movement but a cultural system. The paintings possess a 'social aesthetic' as they respond to the collapse of the symbolic order in contemporary society. As such, they symbolize a loss of totality and system in favor of flux and change.

Best in Show", Village Voice, Jan. 11, 2007

Art Basel Miami: Scope Takes Things Outside, Artinfo.com, Dec. 8, 2006 (Margery Gordon)

New York Times, October 3rd 2004

New York Sun, September 22nd 2004

Juliet, no 102, 2001

Dagbladet, June 26, 2000

VG Norway Newspaper, June 25, 2000

2000+ ARTEAST COLLECTION, The Art of Eastern Europe in Dialogue with the West

Museum of Modern Art, 2000

European Photography 66, vol. 20, no. 2, 1999

Report from Santa Fe, Art in America, 1999

Journal North, July 15, 1999

Crosswinds Weekly, July 15-22, 1999

Innocent Invasion, The New York Times, February 1, 1998

Home News Tribune, January 1998

SITE, Santa Fe Third Biennale, pgs.1-5

Artists Commandeer a Ukrainian Battleship, Jill Barshay, The New York Times, August 14, 1995

Savadov/Senchenko, Report from Moscow Part 1: Brave New World, Art in America, September 1992

Flash Art, May - June 1992

Arsen Savadov & Gregory Senchenko, ARTnews, May 1991

Flash Art, Summer 1991

Up from the Underground, Sylvia Hochfield, ARTnews, 1990

Fresh Cream 01, 02

On the Margin 03, 05

The Body, Ideology, Blind Spots in Post Communism, After the Wall vol. 1

After the Wall, vol. 2, page2

About Arsen Savadov:

The artistic debut of Arsen Savadov, a Ukrainian artist, occurred at the end of the 1980's. With the Soviet era not yet over, he joined an international movement that focused on a 'return to painting'. Using aggressive colors, Savadov's massive canvases from this period feature strange and hallucinatory subjects that are referential, irrational, hyper-visual and erotic. Critics referred to this work as Neo-Baroque (17th century Baroque is, in fact, associated with Ukrainian artistic tradition).

Main Exhibitions

2008

New Ukrainian Painting, White Box, Chlesea New York, Curated by Marat Guelman and Juan Puntes

Thaw: Russian Art From Glasnost to the Present Chelsea Art Museum, New York, Curated by Marat Guelman and Juan Puntes

2006

Humour and Critic in Contemporary Art, touring exhibition, Saint-Jean-de-Monts, France

ART ATTACK! (Russian contemporary art), Orel Art Gallery, Paris, France

Humour and Critic in Contemporary Art, Hall of exhibition, Saint-Jean-de-Monts, France

Art Moscow, Moscow, Russia

2005

Love Stories, Orel Art Gallery, Paris, France

Exposition, Stella Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Street, Art and Fashion, Fotomuseum, Antwerp, Belgium

First Acquisitions, Palazzo Papadopoli, Presentation of the Foundation of the Contemporary Art in the Ukraine (commissioner N.Bourriau), Biennal of Venice 2005

FIAC, Paris, France

Scope London, London, England

2004

Trash Resources, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York, NY, (USA)

Art Moscow, 8th International Art Fair, Moscow, (Russia)

5th Moskow Photobiennale, Moscow, (Russia)

Fresh, Guelman Gallery, Kiev, (Ukraine)

Epoch of Romaticism, Gallery of the Artists' Union of the Ukraine, Kiev, (Ukraine)

Domestic and Wild, Animal painting in the Russian Art of the 18th-20th centuries from the collection of the State Russian Museum, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (Russia)

2003

The New Beginning, Art from Moscow, Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf (Germany)

Art Moscow, 7th International Art Fair, Moscow, (Russia)

Epoch of Romaticism, Palace of Arts, Lvov, (Ukraine)

The First Collection, Gallery of the Artists' Union of the Ukraine, Kiev, (Ukraine)

2001

First Ukrainian Project, 19th Biennale in Venice (Italy)

Fresh Cream, Contemporary Art in Culture (London)

Go Europe, Museum for Photography

2000

The project Intervals, National Fine Art Museum of Ukraine, Kiev (Ukraine)

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter,Oslo (Norway)

L’Autre Moitie de l’Europ”, Realite Sociale/Existence/Politique

Jeu de Paume, Paris (France)

1999

Preventitive Measures, Passage de Retz, Paris

After the Wall, Modern Museen, Stockholm (Sweden)

Nationalgalerie in Hamburger Banhof (Germany)

Museum fur Gegenwart Berlin (Germany)

Looking for a Place, SITE Santa Fe’s Third International Biennal, Santa Fe (USA)

1998

White Dresses, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY (USA)

Three Penny Show, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (USA)

European Photo Biennale, Manege (Russia)

1997

Art Moscow, Central House of Artists, Moscow (Russia)

1996

Manifesta-1, European Biennale, Rotterdam (Netherlands)

The Next 5 Minutes; tactile media, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

1995

OSTranenie: Studio Electronic Media Interpretation, Dessau (Germany)

Wild Life, The Center for the Arts of California Museum for Arts, California (USA)

New Russian Art from the Collection of Christian Keisee, Chicago (USA)

Videoforum 95, International Video Festival, Clarmaunt Ferran (France)

1994

New Media Topia, organized by SCCA Moscow, Central House of Artitsts Moscow (Russia)

V International Symposium on Electronic Art, Helsinki (Finland)

Alchemic Surrender, organized by SCCA, Kiev, Battleship Slavutych, Sevastopol, Crimea (Ukraine)

Expanse of the Cultural Revolution, Ukraine House Cultural Center, Kiev (Ukraine)

1993

Steppes of Europe, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (Poland)

Angels Over Ukraine, Gallery J&V, Edinburgh, (Scotland)

Conversion, Guelman Gallery, Moscow, Russia, Central House of Artists, Moscow (Russia)

Art-Myth3, Moscow Art Fair, Manege, Moscow (Russia)

Art Hamburg, Hamburg (Germany)

Post Anesthesia, Lotringen (Germany)

Grassi Museum, Munich (Germany)

1992

Dialouge with Kiev, Villa Shtuk, Munich (Germany)

1991

Esthetic Experiments, Kuskovo, Moscow Region (Russia)

Art-Myth2, Moscow Art Fair, Manege, Moscow (Russia)

1990

Young Art from the Ukraine, House of Soviet Science and Culture, Budapest (Hungary)

1989

Exhibition of Young Artists, Kiev (Ukraine)

The Youth of the Country, Manege, Moscow (Russia)

1988

Art Contemporain Soveticue, ARCO, Madrid (Spain)

1987

Youth of the Country, All-Union exhibition, Manege, Moscow (Russia)

Art Contemporain Soveticue, Gallery de Frans, FIAC, Paris (France)

One-Man Exhibitions

2003 Donbass Chokolat, Orel Art Presenta, Paris, (France)

2002 Kokto, Guelman Gallery, Kiev, (Ukraine)

2001 Book of the Death, Moscow (Russia)

1998 Deepinsider, Savadov (with Kharchenko), SCCA, Kiev (Ukraine)

1995 Savadov & Senchenko, House of Artists, Kiev (Ukraine)

1995 Chasie Post Gallery, Atlanta GA (USA)

1995 Savadov & Senchenko, Guelman Gallery, Moscow (Russia)

1994 Savadov & Senchenko, Christmas Action, Guelman Gallery, Moscow (Russia)

1992 The Works ofSavadov & Senchenko, Berman Gallery, NY (USA)

1991 Savadov & Senchenko, Central House of Artists, Guelman Gallery, Moscow (Russia)