The pop/off/art Gallery opens the season with Ivan Novikov’s solo exhibition – a Russian artist who, though young, has already gained wide recognition. This is the artist’s third solo exhibition in the pop/off/art Gallery.
In his new project Novikov continues to study the postcolonial discourse, directly addressing the historical past of the USSR for the first time. The artist focuses on the consequences of the country's involvement in many conflicts around the world – from anti-colonial uprisings to civil wars: Soviet citizens have fought on various fronts far from the Motherland. The Communist Party explained its presence in Afghanistan, Egypt, Vietnam, Angola, and other countries, as fulfilling its so-called "international duty". Under the pretext of empathising with the proletariat of the world, a specific form of cultural and political hegemony was being realised, and the internationalist servicemen involuntarily turned out to be the colonial rearguard.
In his new project Ivan Novikov highlights the ambivalent position of the oppressor and the oppressed, the bearer of an alien culture and the representative of the traditional way of life, trying to understand decolonisation and answer the question of what exactly "international duty" means today.
The exhibition will feature paintings and objects. These works created by the artist in such art forms will show the viewer Novikov’s method that he calls "work in progress". A repeated iconographic refrain, a series of painting pieces executed in the artist’s unique style and small-scale sculptures, sorts of objects-sketches, – will become, in the format of an installation, a testimony to his ongoing study.
Ivan Novikov was born in 1990, graduated from the MGAHI n.a. V. I. Surikov and the Institute of Contemporary Art "Baza". He has had a number of solo exhibitions, among which are: "Why?" (START, CCA "Winzavod, 2011), "Lien Xo" (the pop/off/art Gallery, Moscow, 2016), "Shining Mycelium" (VCCA, Voronezh, 2016) and has participated in numerous important group projects such as Manifesta 10 (First Cadet Corps, St. Petersburg, 2014), "REPAIR" (ROT, Kassel, 2012), the 5th Moscow International Bienniale of Young Art (2016), the Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art ("Garage" Museum, Moscow, 2017). He was the winner of the "Garage" Museum grant programme (2015, 2016) and a nominee in the "Curator Project" category of the Innovation Award (2016). Ivan Novikov is a co-founder of the artist-run-space "Red Centre", teaches at the "Baza" Institute of Contemporary Art and curates independent exhibition projects. He is a member of the editorial board of the "Moscow Art Magazine". He lives and works in Moscow.
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