Alexei Anatolyevich Shulgin

Selected solo exhibitions:
2008 "Criti-Pop". Electroboutique, Vladislav Efimov, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Alexei Shulgin, MMOMA, Moscow
2007 Digital History of Contemporary Art. Volume One (with A. Chernyshev). Electroboutique ViewStation. ArtStrelka Cultural Center, Moscow
2006 Formula of Success. Electroboutique ViewStation. ArtStrelka Cultural Center, Moscow
Abstractionism for Everyone. Part 1 (jointly with A. Chernyshev). Electroboutique ViewStation. ArtStrelka Cultural Center, Moscow
2005 Beauty_ Inside, XL Gallery, Moscow
Pop Music is Pornography. Electroboutique ViewStation. ArtStrelka Cultural Center, Moscow
2002 Montage. Moscow House of Photography, Moscow
1997 Art'n'Presentation. Secret Experiment club, Riga, Latvia
A New Art Form. C3, Budapest, Hungary
1994 Televisions. 1989-1993. XL Gallery, Moscow
Other People's Photos. Central House of Artists, Moscow
1993 Who am I? - The Art of Choice. Gallery "School". Gallery "Union", Moscow
1992 Hidden Energy. L Gallery, Moscow
1989 Alexei Shulgin. Gallery "Finnfoto". Helsinki, Finland
1988 Other People's Photos. Uhta Photo Club, Komi ASSR
Selected group exhibitions:
2002 Transmediale. Berlin, Germany
Ascii-art exhibition. BGF, Berlin, Germany
2001 Mediaprivet. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
2000 Crazy Twin. Central House of Artists, Moscow/Central Exhibition Hall, Nizhny Novgorod/Regional Museum of Fine Arts, Samara/Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg/Chateau d’Oiron, Oiron, France
Art Entertainment Network. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
1999 Transmit: Fluxus, Mail Art, Net.Works. Queens Library Gallery, New York, USA
Digital Documentary: The Need to Know and the Urge to Show. pARTs Photographic Arts, Minneapolis, USA
Net_condition. ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
1997 Lab 6. International Exhibition of (Multi)MEDIA Art. Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
Select All. C3, Budapest, Hungary
Skopje Electronic Arts Fair '97. Skopje Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia
Ars Electronica Festival. Linz, Austria
3 Cetinje Biennale. Cetinje, Montenegro
Sterische Herbst. Graz, Austria
1996 3 Jeunes Moscovites. Artiscope Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Photo Biennale. House of Artists on Kuznetsky Most, Moscow
Art on the Net / Challenge of the Internet. Museum on the Web, Japan
Kunst als Position im Zeitalter globaler Technologien. Bunker, Albrechtstr 24, Berlin, Germany
1995 PHOTO-reclamation. New Art from Moscow & Saint Petersburg. The Photographers Gallery, London, UK
Neue Fotokunst aus Russland. Kulturhaus Osterfeld, Pforzheim, Germany
No Man's Land. Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center "Nikolaj", Copenhagen, Denmark
1994-95 Neue Fotokunst aus Russland. Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe/Galerie im Karmelitenkloster, Frankfurt am Main/Kunsthalle Faust, Hanover/Museum Volk und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf/Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin/Hertener Fototage, Herten, Germany
1994 Contemporary Art Photography. Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. Central House of Artists, Moscow
Hamburg Project. Contemporary Art Center, Moscow
Depository. Acquisitions of the Russian Ministry of Culture Fund. Solyanka Exhibition Hall, Moscow
Spring Exhibition of the Moscow Artists' Union. House of Artists on Kuznetsky Most, Moscow
Escape. Contemporary Art Center, Moscow
Night of the Arts. Nightclub "Pilot", Moscow
PHOTO-reclamation. New Art from Moscow & Saint Petersburg. John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, Street Level Gallery, Glasgow, UK
Surface of Meaning. Overlaying of Covers. Central House of Artists, Moscow
Border Zones of Art. Contemporary Art Festival. Art Museum, Sochi
Minima Media. II MedienBiennale Leipzig. Leipzig, Germany
NewMediaTopia. Central House of Artists, Moscow
Teaching experience:
2003 Sibelius Academy. Helsinki, Finland
2002 Valand School of Fine Arts, Gothenburg, Sweden
Merz Akademie, Stuttgart, Germany
Turku Polytechnic, Turku, Finland
The Jutland Academy of Fine Arts, Aarhus, Denmark
2001 Valand School of Fine Arts, Gothenburg, Sweden
Workshop "Networked Art Project". Soros Contemporary Art Center, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Institute of Contemporary Art Issues, Moscow
2000-1 ProArte Institute, St. Petersburg (course director)
2000 Alchemy masterclass, Brisbane, Australia
Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria
1999 California School of Arts. Los Angeles, USA
1997 Net Art Workshop, MUU Media Lab, Helsinki, Finland
1994-5 United Art Studios, Moscow
1995-6 Moscow WWWArt Center, Moscow
1994 London College of Arts. London, UK
Performances
1999 No Smoking (with Sergey Leontiev), Neglinnaya Street, Moscow
1997 Cyberknowledge to Real People. Vienna, Austria

Painting! Where can one escape from you! Still, when we hear the term 'visual art', we first think of you, and only afterward of graphics, sculpture, photography, and so on.
How many times have art critics and futurists steeped in Benjamin tried to bury you! How often have you been ridiculed, called an anachronism; how many contemptuous remarks have been addressed to artists faithful to you! And yet—you remain relevant; you still proudly carry within yourself a mystery that no one has solved. You are still the queen of the arts. Electroboutique bows our heads to you and offers our dedication to you. We are not masters of brush and canvas in the traditional sense. But we are artists who believe in progress and new technologies. We analyze and reverse-engineer various authors’ styles and extract the algorithms behind them. By uploading the algorithm into a machine, we create an automatic painter who instantly "paints" your portrait with electronic strokes. The system is constantly improving, and as we develop it, we dare to hope that we come a little closer to discovering your mystery, Painting.
—from the text "DIGITAL HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ART. THE RETURN OF PAINTING" Alexei Shulgin.
Electroboutique is a unique company producing electronic artworks, a new media art gallery and an artist collective. We create works in modern technological forms—interactive electronic devices based on LCD screens and LEDs. Our works exist outside national and cultural barriers—they can be found in trendy interiors, as well as at contemporary art exhibitions and art fairs. The unique works of Electroboutique combine trendy aesthetics with information technologies, modern design and pop art with real-time data processing. Our technologies include open-source and proprietary solutions, as well as the best developments in media art of recent decades. We produce truly contemporary, market-oriented art that follows current discourses.
Electroboutique
No-Brain Art is intellectual art that does not require critical interpretation. No-Brain Art is art that makes direct contact with the viewer here and now. No-Brain Art has nothing to do with the paradigm of the artist’s inner world. No-Brain Art does not set riddles for viewers or allude directly to other texts and artifacts. Still, No-Brain Art is full of cultural and ideological codes that are read by the viewer on a subconscious level, bypassing conscious understanding. No-Brain Art is high-tech and expensive art involving much intellectual and manual labor. No-Brain Art refutes the common notion that anyone can make contemporary art. No-Brain Art is the art that feels as if it’s always existed, and when one parts from it, one feels something is missing. No-Brain Art does not impose any points of view but contains many relevant ideas. No-Brain Art harmoniously unites the Western idea of progress with the Eastern idea of emptiness. No-Brain Art gives the viewer the joy of perception, the artist the joy of creation, and leaves the critic to gnash their teeth on the sidelines. Electroboutique, 2007

Electroboutique's projects are playful, emotionally engaging the viewer, who reacts to them with almost childlike joy. These valuable types of attention are evoked and sustained in various ways. The aesthetic experiment here refers to creative production and interactivity, as used in media and 'creative' industries. Such forms are encouraged and fostered in everyday life, maturing through channels and aims of self-realization for the 'creative class', who are in need of creative work, a flexible lifestyle, and a playful approach. Everyday life assumes, requires, and channels specific forms of subjectivation of individuals, whose essence is creativity and uniqueness. Electroboutique responds better than others to the subtle penetration of 'artistic' discourses into business, politics, and control systems; all Electroboutique’s works are commentary on the 'uprising of the creative masses.' Electroboutique is unique due to its witty references to mass culture and industry, as well as a deliberate lowering of pathos while maintaining high artistic quality and experimentalism. The diversity of Electroboutique’s working methods accumulates practices of repurposing beautiful gadgets, revealing their plastic value, playing with corporate aesthetics, creatively distorting forms and signals, laughing lightly at this very act, recreating and remaking products of capitalist creativity.
—from "Funny, but not really" by Olga Goryunova