Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art and Natalia Grabar are pleased to present the exhibition Consciousness doesn't have borders. The upcoming exhibition brings together the artworks of two young contemporary artists: Yulia Virko and Anthony Gelfand. In their first solo exhibition in Moscow, large-scale paintings and drawings created by Virko will be presented alongside photo collages and videos by Gelfand, in a multi-faceted installation.
The title of this exhibition refers to the complexity of human consciousness. The installation is based upon alternating the artists’ works: Virko taking the audience into a bright world of colorful dreams, and Gelfand exploring nostalgic memory and the consciousness into which people are born.
The artistic practice and biographies of Virko and Gelfand are closely intertwined as they both experiment with techniques and materials; both studied illustration and painting in the USA. The artists reflect on the state of bifurcation, on the boundary between memory and imagination, and their common method is combination, layering and collage.
Yulia Virko’s paintings are created according to the laws of dreams and the unconscious, where the truth comes along with fiction: flamingo walking under police surveillance, or a huge iceberg in raspberry water. Anthony Gelfand uses family archives and found objects in his works. Children’s toys, jewelry and household collectibles become the material for creating still life photographs, objects of art and video collages.
A labyrinth in the White Hall industrial space, invented by architect Ksenia Lukyanova, offers the spectator several alternative routes to explore. The installation itself turns into an independent masterpiece, which allows two young artists to show their works at other exhibition venues across Russia. In autumn/winter 2020, Consciousness doesn't have borders installation will be open at the Sevkabel Port space, St. Petersburg.
About the artists
Yulia Virko (1994) currently works in Moscow after earning her degree fr om Rhode Island School of Design (RISD, Providence, RI) and Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD, Savannah, GA) wh ere she specialized in illustration and painting. Virko has already implemented group projects in the USA and Europe. She considers painting and drawing her two favorite media to work in, basing it on collage.
Anthony Gelfand (1992) grew up in the USA in a family of Russian immigrant artists. Currently, Gelfand lives and works in New York. He holds a BA in art and painting from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD, Savannah, GA) and has taken part in group exhibitions across the USA. Anthony Gelfand creates images, art objects or installations, using found materials, video and other media.
Admission is free.
Curated by Kristina Romanova (Research Arts).
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