Exhibition of the artist Anton Kushaev "Doubtful foundation"

March 10, 2017 at the WINZAVOD Center for Contemporary Art at the START young art venue, an exhibition by the artist Anton Kushaev “Doubtful Foundation” will open. The author offers us an original look at the usual urban buildings that elude our attention to the construction. In his works, he exposes the frames and foundations of primitive architectural structures of the strut-beam type, shows the bases hidden from our eyes. With the help of various media - painting, graphics and objects, Anton Kushaev builds a wrecked city of architectural skeletons and dust.

Anton Kushaev, Untitled, from the Object series, 2016

The space of the exhibition “Doubtful foundation” is a space-trick. The artist deliberately changes the trajectory of his gaze, promises the viewer an insight into the very essence of things, but leaves him alone with phantom designs. The viewer enters the exposition space from the back of the painting; instead of the traditional stretcher, the artist draws the canvas onto a three-dimensional wooden structure, creating the effect of three-dimensional space behind the surface of the painting layer. Thus, he equalizes the text and context: through a simple architectural form, the image of the same decrepit greenhouse made of bones from the front side of the canvas shines through. The author combines two mediums in one work, making it transmedia.

Following the conceptual tradition, Anton Kushaev not only creates an artistic image by analyzing parts of it, but also shows the logic of the work itself and manipulates the viewer’s optics.

Anton Kushaev, artist: “The city becomes a cage, the street becomes a trap, the image becomes a trap. Invisible, they become an obsessive rattle of grinding dust and settle on everything around. Covered with a veil, they seem to be nonexistent, but can be detected. "

Kirill Preobrazhensky, curator: “The exhibition exists in the logic of“ sleep in a dream, ”the artist’s naive desire to break through the veil of images to genuine content. But passing through the surfaces of painting and graphics, he found behind them the same bare structures as those depicted on them. Pinocchio found behind the drawn hearth the entrance to the utopian magical world, but the golden key is lost, and behind the drawn hearth we see only a drawing of the same hearth. Unlike the happy end in The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio, the author finds himself in an obsessive looped plot. ”

The special attention of Anton Kushaev to painting is not accidental. For twelve years he was engaged in temple painting, worked on large murals. The artist took part in the painting of more than twenty temples. Today he is studying at the Baza Institute, where he combines the skill of a painter with a new, modern outlook on art.

The exhibition on the START site will allow the artist to conceptually present topics of importance to him. Since 2008, the START project has opened more than fifty exhibitions of young artists. After participating in the project, they are successfully exhibited in Russian and foreign galleries and institutions.

About the artist:

Anton Kushaev (born 1983) is an artist. He graduated from the Moscow Art College of Applied Arts (formerly named after Kalinin) and the Icon Painting School at the Moscow Theological Academy, is currently studying at the Baza Moscow Institute of Contemporary Art.

Member artist-run space Center "Red". Co-founder of the exhibition space "SHUM" in St. Petersburg. Lives and works in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Exhibitions: “Raw / boiled” MMSI on Gogolevsky Boulevard, curated by Anatoly Osmolovsky.

About the START project:

START is one of the main projects to support young art in Russia, created by the WINZAVOD Center for Contemporary Art in 2008. Participation in it gives the artist the opportunity to organize his first personal exhibition under the guidance of an experienced curator. During the existence of the project, more than 40,000 applications were accepted, 52 personal exhibitions were held. In the last two years alone, ten young START artists, thanks to the Center for Contemporary Art Winzavod, have taken part in international residences.