Vladimir Dubossarsky

Collection of Contemporary Art of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; Collection of Contemporary Art of Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, Moscow; 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; Secession, Vienna, Austria.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2008 The New People Are Already Here, Deitch Projects, New York, USA; Meander, PIrogovo Resort, Moscow Oblast; Untitled, Vilma Gold Gallery, London. 2007 In the Artist's Studio, Gallery Orel Art, Paris, France; Seasons of Russian Painting, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. 2006 'Anthills' (with A. Vinogradov), XL, Moscow; 'The Lightness of Being' (with A. Vinogradov), Yacht Club Boathouse, Bukhata Radosti. 2005 'New Painting' (with A. Vinogradov), XL, Moscow. 2004 'Underwater World' (with A. Vinogradov), XL, Moscow; 'Astrakhan Blues' (with A. Vinogradov), painting, XL, Moscow. 2003 – Project at the Venice Biennale (with A. Vinogradov), Italy; Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York (with A. Vinogradov). 2001 Claudio Poleschi Arte Contemporanea Gallery, Lucca, Italy (with A. Vinogradov); Vilma Gold Gallery, London. 2002 – 'Total Painting' (with A. Vinogradov), XL, Moscow. 2000 – 'Inspiration' (with A. Vinogradov), one painting exhibition, XL, Moscow. 1999 'Painting or Just Pictures' (with A. Vinogradov), Moscow Fine Art Gallery, Moscow; 'Christ in Moscow' (with A. Vinogradov), one painting exhibition, XL, Moscow. 1998 – 'P.S.' (with A. Vinogradov), M. Gelman Gallery, Moscow. 1997 – 'Erntedankfest' (with A. Vinogradov), Atelier-Ester Freund, Vienna, Austria; 'Austrian and Russian Literature' (with A. Vinogradov), Brasilica, Vienna, Austria; 'Etudes' (with A. Vinogradov), L-Gallery, Moscow. 1996 – 'Russian Literature' (with A. Vinogradov), M. Gelman Gallery, Moscow; PLAYBOY Russia project (with A. Vinogradov), Moscow Fine Art Gallery, Moscow; 'Celebration' (with A. Vinogradov), M. Gelman Gallery, Moscow; 'Bluhende Landschaften' (with A. Vinogradov), Galerie Kai Higelman, Berlin, Germany. 1995 – 'Picture for the Reichstag' (with A. Vinogradov), Higelman Gallery, Berlin; 'Artists Against Sex' (with A. Vinogradov), Manhattan Express Nightclub, Moscow; 'Commissioned Paintings' (with A. Vinogradov), L-Gallery, Moscow. 1994 – 'Picasso in Moscow', Studio 20 Gallery, CHA, Moscow; 'Dark Alleys' (with V. Koshlyakov), Yakut Gallery, Moscow. 1993 'Etching and Ceramics', Gallery on Trekhprudny Lane, Moscow; 'Painting and Sculpture' (with V. Koshlyakov), State Russian Museum, Marble Palace, St. Petersburg. (Due to length, only a selection is shown. The original includes extensive additional exhibitions, both solo and group, and curatorial projects.)

Without rejecting the traditions of Soviet painting—more precisely, by adopting the core requirements of Socialist Realism—Dubossarsky and Vinogradov revive the genre of the monumental thematic canvas. They declare themselves as artists working on commission, although their client is most often virtual, non-existent. In fact, they address the infamous 'social commission,' which artists try to anticipate by painting whatever 'the common people' desire. Within this conceptual framework, the artists play ironically with mass-culture clichés and advertising images, creating a new hero: positive and victorious. A vivid palette and 'impossible' encounters between diverse, dissimilar characters on the canvas multiply the real fans of this virtual commission. The painting style of Dubossarsky-Vinogradov, like many representatives of contemporary painting, is understood as text, but unlike their predecessors, this language is easily perceived by the viewer without the need for decoding.

Naked, unrestrained female tractor drivers; Helmut Kohl at the wedding of young Germans; romantic and significant characters like Yeltsin and Lebed; Stallone painting a posing Schwarzenegger among children—all these cheerful virtual fantasies (quite in the spirit of Socialist Realism) reveal the way of contemporary thinking with all its paradoxical twists. It's no coincidence that the cult youth writer Viktor Pelevin, with the authors' consent, illustrated his new novel with works by Dubossarsky and Vinogradov. Notably, the Russian version is illustrated with American pop-idols, in America the book is published with the characters Mishka and Barbie, and in Germany with German cult figures.

Elena Selina, text for the exhibition 'Contemporary Russian Painting 1992–2002'.