Artist’s Gestalt or sudden retrospective

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art together with the OVCHARENKO gallery presents the exhibition by Yegor Koshelev “The Artist’s Gestalt or a Sudden Retrospective”.

Egor Koshelev is an attentive observer of modern culture, its critic and ironic commentator. His early projects were related to the aesthetics of graffiti: the artist was involved in this type of street art for some time. Then the figure of the artist became the focus of Koshelev’s attention: for him, the author turned out to be even more interesting than his own work. This is how a story about a fictional artist appeared - surreal, parody, but also full of introspection.

Today, the artist uses quotes from the history of art from the Renaissance and realism to street art and cinema, writing art historical puzzles and messages. In his surreal world, mythological monsters coexist with modern fashion and technology. Koshelev continues to work with the problem of the artist’s place in the world. His alter ego “The Last Artist” is a reflective and ambitious character typical of the Moscow art scene.

The ironic title of the project, “The Artist’s Gestalt or a Sudden Retrospective,” can be broken down into several main components. Here one of the cross-cutting themes of Yegor Koshelev’s work is played out - the image of the artist, his internal structure and development. According to the artist, “the title takes away from the suffocating seriousness of the statement” - there are many satirical and playful intonations in his work.

The exhibition will feature more than 80 works: graphics, paintings, objects and sculptures from different years, as well as installations specially created for the exhibition. Egor Koshelev’s project “The Artist’s Gestalt or a Sudden Retrospective” will be the first event of the joint exhibition program of MMOMA and the OVCHARENKO gallery.

Egor Koshelev (b. January 13, 1980) graduated from the Academy. S. G. Stroganov (department of monumental painting), and in 2006, having defended his dissertation on Tintoretto, received a PhD in art history. Winner of the Strabag Kunstforum Prize (2012). The author’s works are in the collections of MMOMA, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, and the Tsaritsyno State Museum-Reserve.

Gallery OVCHARENKO

One of the first private galleries in Moscow, founded in 1990 by Vladimir Ovcharenko. The gallery (until September 2018 - Regina Gallery) participated in the international fairs Art Basel and Frieze, and constantly collaborates with the stars of contemporary art. OVCHARENKO constantly provides works of its artists for major international projects and biennales of contemporary art; their works are in leading museums in the world: MoMa (New York), Tate Modern (London), Center Pompidou (Paris).