SAVADOV Arsen

Works are held in state and private collections of USA, France, Germany, Scotland, Russia.

Selected personal exhibitions
2007
Paintings. Daniyal Mahmood Gallery, New York
2005
Love Story. Galerie Orel Art Presenta, Paris
2003
Donbass-Chocolate. Galerie Orel Art Presenta, Paris
2002
Kokto. Marat Guelman Gallery, Kyiv
2001
Book of the Dead. Art Moscow Workshop, Central House of Artist, Moscow
1998
Deepinsider: Arsen Savadov (with Alexander Kharchenko), Soros Center for Contemporary Arts Gallery, Kyiv
1995
Arsen Savadov & Georgy Senchenko. House of Artist, Kyiv
Arsen Savadov. Chasie Post Gallery, Atlanta, USA
Keine dressur! (with Georgy Senchenko). Marat Guelman Gallery, Moscow
1994
Christmas Action (with Georgy Senchenko). Marat Guelman Gallery, Moscow
1992
The works of Savadov & Senchenko. Berman Gallery, New York, USA
1991
Arsen Savadov & Georgy Senchenko. Marat Guelman Gallery at Central House of Artists, Moscow
Selected group exhibitions
2009
Sotheby`s, Modern and Contemporary Russian Art, London
Groupe Exhibition, Galerie Orel Art Presenta, Paris
Sotheby`s, Modern and Contemporary Russian Art, New York
2008
New Ukrainian painting, WHITE BOX, New York
Thaw: Russian Art From Glasnost to the Present, The Chelsea Art Museum, New York
2007
Reflection, PinchukArtCentre, Kiev
Believe, art-centre Winzavod, Moscow Sotheby`s, Modern and Contemporary Russian Art, London
2006
MacDougall`s Russian Art Auction
2004
Trash Resources. Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York, USA
Rauma Biennale Balticum 2004. Rauma Art Museum, Rauma, Finland
Les rencontres internationales de la photographie d`Arles. Arles , France
The Fifth International Photography Month in Moscow: Photobiennale 2004. Moscow
Fresh. Marat Guelman Gallery, Kyiv
Age of Romanticism. Ukrainian Artists` Union Gallery, Kyiv
2003
Neue Ansätze. Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Moskau. Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
Art Moscow. VII International Art Fair. Central House of Artist, Moscow
Age of Romanticism. Palace of Arts, L`viv, Ukraine
First collection. Ukrainian Art. Ukrainian Artists` Union Gallery, Kyiv
Open the Curtain. Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany
Third International Festival: Fashion and Style in Photography. Moscow
2002
Art MoscowVI International Art Fair. Central House of Artist, Moscow
BIBIkov`s Boulevard. Soviart Gallery, Kyiv
2001
The First Ukrainian Project. La 49 Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Fresh Cream. Contemporary art in culture, London
go Europe. Museum fur Photografie, Kunsthalle im ARTmax, Braunschweig, Germany
Art Moscow. V International Art Fair. Central House of Artist, Moscow
For Fun. Museum of Cultural Heritage, Kyiv
Art against Geography. The State Russian Museum, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
2000
L‘Autre Moitie de l‘Europe. Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris
Intervals. National Fine Art Museum of Ukraine , Kyiv
Contemporary art from Ukraine. Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo
1999
After the Wall. Moderna Museen, Stockholm
Looking for a Place. SITE Santa Fe`s Third International Biennale, Santa-Fe, USA
Regards sur l`Ukraine. Passage de Retz Gallery, Paris
The Future is Now. Museum of contemporary art, Zagreb, Croatia
1998
White Dresses. Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, USA
Tree Penny Show. Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA
Day in the Kufe. Gallery of the Center for Contemporary art at NaUKMA, Kyiv
The Second International Photography Month in Moscow: Photobiennale 1998, Moscow
InterMedia. Gallery of the Center for Contemporary art at NaUKMA, Kyiv
1997
Art Moscow. II International Art Fair. Central House of Artist, Moscow
1996
Manifesta-1. Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Next 5 Minutes: Tactile Media. Amsterdam, Netherlands
Commodity fetishism. Ukrainian House State Art Center, Kyiv
1995
OSTranenie. Studio Electronic Media Interpretation, Dessau, Germany
Wild Life. Center for Arts of California Art Museum, California, USA
New Russian Art from the Christian Keosee Collection. Chicago, USA
Videoform95. Clarmaunt Ferran, France
Barbaross. National Artists Union Gallery, Kyiv
1994
NewMediaTopia. Soros Center for Contemporary Art at Central House of Artists, Moscow
Expanse of the cultural revolution. Ukranian House Cultural Center, Kyiv
Free Zone. Odessa art museum, Odessa, Ukraine
V International Symposium on Electronic Art . Helsinki
Alchemical Surrender. Gallery of the Center for Contemporary art at NaUKMA, Kyiv
1993
The Steppes of Europe. Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
Angels Over Ukraine . J&V Gallery, Edinburgh, Great Britain
Conversion. Marat Guelman Gallery at Central House of Artists, Moscow
Art-Myth. III International Art Fair. Manege Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow
Post Anesthesia. Grassi Museum, Munich, Germany
1992
Dialogue with Kyiv. Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany
Calm. Ukrainian Artists` Union Gallery, Kyiv
1991
Aesthetic Exercises. Estate Kuskovo Museum, Moscow
Art-Myth. II International Art Fair. Manege Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow
1990
Young Art from Ukraine. House of Soviet Science and Culture, Budapest
1989
Republican Exhibition of Young Artist. House of Artist, Kyiv
Youth of the Country. Manege Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow
1988
Art contemporain soviétique. ARCO, Madrid, Spain
1987
Art contemporain soviétique. FIAC, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Youth of the Country. Manege Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow

The artistic debut of Arsen Savadov and Georgy Senchenko stunned the Soviet art world.
At the end of the 1980s, with the Soviet era not yet over, they joined the European fashion
of a `return to painting`. Their huge canvases featuring strange and hallucinatory subjects
painted in aggressive colours echoed Achille Bonito Oliva`s transavantgarde: it was referential,
irrational, hyper-visual and erotic. While their traditional technique of oil on canvas did not
run against the official dogma of Soviet art - it appeared at official art exhibitions in Kiev
and Moscow - the poetics behind their works signalled a completely different way of thinking.
In the Ukraine, critics referred to this type of work as neo-Baroque. The Baroque is commonly
associated with the Ukrainian artistic tradition - it came from Ukraine to Russia at the end of
the eighteenth century. Even when Savadov and Senchenko moved away from painting towards
inter¬active performance, video and other techniques and art forms typical of the 1990s, they
continued to be influenced by the neo-Baroque imagination. In 1994 they curated a grandiose and
provocative project, `Landscape of Cultural Revolution`. Their works were fenced off from the
public, visible only through reversed binoculars attached to holes in the fence. This approach
is characteristic of Savadov and Senchenko: on the one hand it explored the phenomenon of vision
and its possibili¬ties, on the other, it reacted to the much-debated problem in Kiev at the time
of the `crisis of representation".
In 1996, as part of Manifesta 1 at the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, Savadov and
Senchenko staged a project in the museum toilets. Short texts such as `To the smiles of kind people`
and `To peace in the whole world` appeared on the tiles above toilets, urinals and sinks. While
entering into the critique of institutionalism characteristic of the period, they preserved their
Baroque temperament.
In their most recent work, Savadov and Senchenko have returned to representative art in the form of
photography. As in their early pieces, they display visual over-abundance, erotic provocation and
sophisticated referentiality. However, this time their work is not an apology for artistic autonomy
but a project of social research. It is a response to the collapse of symbolic order prevalent in
post-Communist societies, and to the disintegration of the contemporary subject. In these photo-graphic
images diverse symbolic codes collide: nouw.uu riche glamour and national mythology, neo-decadent
eroticism and fragments of the grand style of Stalinist culture. Importantly, by using the stylistics
of contemporary commercial photography, these pictures are designed for the present - appearing on the
pages of fashionable magazines. Editors accept these works with enthusiasm. Rather like the Soviet
censors who allowed Savadov and Senchenko`s canvases into official exhibitions, they vaguely understand
that these are phenomena of a different order.
Viktor Misiano
The New York Times, 1 February