Semyon Faibisovich
30 April – 29 May 2010
Regina London
22 Eastcastle St.
London, W1W 8DE, United Kingdom
T +44 207 636 7768
london [at] reginagallery.com
Regina Moscow
1/6, 4th Syromyatnichesky pereulok
Moscow, 105120, Russia
T +7 495 228 1330
moscow [at] reginagallery.com
Moscow’s Regina Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of a new space in London with an exhibition of works by Semyon Faibisovich. The new gallery is situated at 22 Eastcastle Street in the arts-hub of Fitzrovia. It is a new conversion of a former 19th century merchant’s warehouse, with plentiful natural light and an expansive glass facade at street level. The addition of Regina further cements Fitzrovia’s reputation as a major London art destination, with galleries including Modern Art, Pilar Corrias, Alison Jacques and David Roberts Art Foundation all close-by. The venue will be the first permanent space run by Regina Gallery outside of Moscow, and will develop the gallery’s activities of presenting the most exciting international art as well as focusing on established and emerging art from Russia and Ukraine.
The inaugural exhibition Les Misérables will be the first London solo show of Moscow-based painter Semyon Faibisovich, which will run from 30 April until 29 May. It includes twelve new paintings, most of which are shown for the first time, alongside highlights from his recent solo presentation at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2009), and his retrospective, ‘Evidence’, at Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2010).
The works span each of the artist’s most current cycles: ‘Trolleybus’, ‘At the Stop’ and ‘Razgulyai’. The former demonstrates Faibisovich’s ongoing focus on the everyman – not the central figure of the Soviet ideological universe, but rather the outsider of Russian Capitalism. The latter two series, meanwhile, focus specifically on phenomena from ‘the new life’, including representations of those individuals who lost everything and live on the margins of society. ‘Razgulyai’ itself refers to the area of Moscow close to the artist’s home.
The artist observes that, “these are the characters who are visually under our noses and in front of everyone who leaves the house to get some groceries or take the Metro. We are not used to paying them any attention. It is not customary”, and so Faibisovich directs the visitor’s gaze to them and offers a challenge to the stereotyped concepts of wealth and glamour.
Semyon Faibisovich was born in Moscow in 1949. He has exhibited extensively both in Russia and abroad. Notable group exhibitions include ‘Behind the Ironic Curtain’ at Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York (1989), ‘Adaptation and Negation of Socialist Realism’ at The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (1990) and ‘Berlin-Moscow/1950-2000′ at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2004). His works are held in public collections in Russia, Germany, the USA and elsewhere. This is the first major solo exhibition of Faibisovich to be held in London.
About Regina
Regina Gallery was established by Vladimir and Regina Ovcharenko in Moscow in 1990, a time of startling change, political involvement and experimentation on the Russian art scene. It quickly earned a reputation as an urgent and unique platform, for performance in particular, hosting landmark projects with Moscow Actionists such as Oleg Kulik (Regina’s artistic director for the first few years) as well as staging important group and solo shows by Soviet-generation conceptualists (Ivan Chuikov, Andrei Monastyrski) and emerging artists from the former USSR (Pavel Pepperstein, Oleg Golosiy).
The opening marks the twentieth anniversary year since the gallery’s foundation, during which time Regina has established itself as one of the leading contemporary spaces in its home country. Regina Gallery regularly takes part in art fairs including Frieze Art Fair, Art Basel Miami Beach and The Armory Show and its artists have regularly been invited to take part in major Biennales including Documenta, São Paulo Biennial and Venice.
Following ‘Les Misérables’ (30 April – 29 May), Regina Gallery London will present the following exhibitions:
June 2010: PAVEL PEPPERSTEIN ‘From Mordor with Love’
July 2010: ‘Between Nothingness and Eternity. Some Aspects by Young Artists from Berlin’ group show curated by Peter Lang
Image above:
Semyon Faibisovich
Tramp from the cycle RAZGULYAI, 2009
Mixed media, oil on canvas
h: 145 x w: 195 cm