Alexander Vinogradov

Collection of Contemporary Art, Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, Moscow; Secession, Vienna, Austria. Collection of Contemporary Art of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; Ivanovo Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Avignon, France; Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston; MAK, Vienna, Austria; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Historical Museum, Bonn, Germany.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (jointly with V. Dubossarsky): 2008 The New People Are Already Here, Deitch Projects, New York, USA; Meander, PIRogovo Resort, Moscow Region; Untitled, Vilma Gold Gallery, London. 2007 In the Artist's Studio, Orel Art Gallery, Paris, France; The Seasons of Russian Painting, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. 2006 'Ant Hills', XL Gallery, Moscow; 'The Lightness of Being', yacht club boathouse, Joy Bay. 2005 'New Painting', XL Gallery, Moscow. 2004 'Underwater World', XL Gallery, Moscow; 'Astrakhan Blues', painting, XL Gallery, Moscow. 2003 – Project at the Venice Biennale, Italy; Deitch Gallery, New York. 2001 Claudio Poleschi Arte Contemporanea Gallery, Lucca, Italy; Vilma Gold Gallery, London. 2002 – 'Total Painting', XL Gallery, Moscow. 2000 – 'Inspiration'. One painting exhibition, XL Gallery, Moscow. 1999 'Painting or Just Pictures', Moscow Fine Art Gallery, Moscow; 'Christ in Moscow'. One painting exhibition, XL Gallery, Moscow. 1998 – 'P.S.', M. Gelman Gallery, Moscow. 1997 – 'Erntedankfest', Atelier-Ester Freund, Vienna, Austria; 'Austrian and Russian Literature', Brasilica, Vienna, Austria; 'Sketches', L-Gallery, Moscow. 1996 – 'Russian Literature', M. Gelman Gallery, Moscow; Project for the Russian edition of 'PLAYBOY', Moscow Fine Art Gallery, Moscow; 'Triumph', M. Gelman Gallery, Moscow; 'Blühende Landschaften', Galerie Kai Higelman, Berlin, Germany. 1995 – 'A Painting for the Reichstag', Higelman Gallery, Berlin; 'Artists Against Sex', Manhattan Express Nightclub, Moscow; 'Paintings on Order', L-Gallery, Moscow.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (jointly with V. Dubossarsky): 2009 'From Study to Art Object', Moscow Museum of Modern Art. 2007 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, parallel program, project 'I Believe', Moscow. 2006 OKHO: Contemporary Russian Art, Sotheby's exhibition, New York. 2005 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, special projects: 'Companions', 'Starz', Moscow. 2003 50th Venice Biennale, Russia Pavilion, Italy. 2002 Actual Russian Painting 1992-2002, XL Gallery, Moscow. 2005 25th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil. 2001 1st Valencia Biennale, Spain. 1998 Art-Moscow International Art Fair, M. Gelman Gallery, Malyy Manezh, Moscow. 1997 III Cetinje Biennale, Cetinje, Montenegro; 'Department of Newest Trends: first five years', State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; 'Art Manezh-97', National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Manezh, Moscow. 'Back and Forth', 3rd Contemporary Art Biennale, Cetinje, Yugoslavia; 'Austrian and Russian Literature', Brasilica, Vienna, Austria; Moscow Forum of Artistic Initiatives, Malyy Manezh, Moscow; 'Moscow–Uryupinsk. To Russia with Love', Uryupinsk Regional Museum; Moscow Forum of Artistic Initiatives, Malyy Manezh, Moscow; 'Art-Moscow', Central House of Artists, Moscow. 'It's a Better World', Secession, Vienna, Austria; Art Forum Gallery, Mirano, Italy. 'History in Faces', Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Perm, Novosibirsk. 'Verbal Range in Contemporary Russian Art', Russian Cultural Center, Budapest, Hungary. 1996 – 'Moscow Forum of Artistic Initiatives', Malyy Manezh, Moscow; Art-Moscow International Fair, L-Gallery, Central House of Artists, Moscow. 'Multiplication' (from the contemporary art collection of Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve), Kashirka, Moscow. International Art Fair Art-Manezh, Moscow Fine Art Gallery, Manezh, Moscow. 1995 – 'Russian Beauty', Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow; 'Walks Beyond the Horizon', Belyaevo Exhibition Hall, Moscow. 'Artists Against Sex' action, Manhattan Express Club, Moscow; Palto Gallery, Moscow; 'About Home', Profsoyuznaya 100, Moscow; 'The Artist and the Model', Moscow Fine Art Gallery, Moscow; 'INTERREGNUM', Kunsthalle Nurnberg, Nuremberg, Germany. 1994 – 'May Exhibition', Artists' House on Kuznetsky Most 20, Moscow; Cetinje Biennale II, Cetinje, Montenegro; 'Reproduction "Mon amour"', Laboratory Gallery, Moscow. CURATOR OF EXHIBITIONS: 1995 'Russian Beauty' (with V. Dubossarsky), Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow.

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Without rejecting the traditions of Soviet painting—more precisely, taking as their weapon the main tenets of Socialist Realism—Dubossarsky-Vinogradov revive the genre of monumental thematic painting. They declare working on commission, although their customer is most often virtual and non-existent. Rather, they are dealing with the notorious social commission, which the artists try to guess by painting what the "common people" may want to see. Through these "commissions" the artists play ironically with mass culture clichés and advertising images, creating a new hero: positive and victorious. The bright palette, the 'impossible' encounters of diverse, mismatched characters on the canvas, multiply real admirers of the virtual commission. The pictorial language of Dubossarsky-Vinogradov, like that of many contemporary painters, is understood as text, but unlike their predecessors, this language is easily perceived by the viewer without need for decryption.
Naked unbridled tractor girls; Helmut Kohl at the wedding of young Germans; romantic and significant heroes—Yeltsin and Lebed; Stallone painting a posing Schwarzenegger among children—cheerful virtual fantasies (very much in the spirit of Socialist Realism) reveal the method of contemporary thinking with all its paradoxical twists. It is no coincidence that the cult writer among youth, Viktor Pelevin, with the authors’ consent, illustrated his new novel with existing works by Dubossarsky and Vinogradov. The Russian version features American pop idols; in America, the book will appear with characters of Mickey and Barbie, while in Germany—these will be German cult figures.
Elena Selina
Text for the exhibition "Actual Russian Painting. 1992 – 2002"

Lunina L. "The Spirit of the Alexandrov Film." Newspaper 'Segodnya' No. 49, March 17, 1994; Newspaper 'The Moscow Times', May 12, 1996; 'On the Expanses of the Wonderful Homeland.' 'Literaturnaya Gazeta' No. 28, 1996; Romer F. 'Doomed to Success.' 'Nezavisimaya Gazeta', June 10, 1996.