Dmitry Askol'dovich Kantorov

IBS Corporate Collection, Moscow
Most-Bank, Moscow
PN Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
Kolodzey Art Foundation, Washington, USA
Stuart Levi Gallery, New York, USA
Maya Polsky Gallery, Chicago, USA
Alex Edmund Gallery, New York, USA
Granovsky Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Alexandre Gallery, Paris, France
Private collections in Poland, UK, USA, France.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1989 "Nomenclature Sanatorium" (as part of the exhibition project "Myths and Reality"). Youth Palace, Moscow
1990 "Civil War". Stewart Levi Gallery, New York, USA
"Rusted Silver". Maya Polsky Gallery, Chicago, USA
1992 "Between Varangians and Greeks". Eastern Gallery, Moscow
1994 "Advertising Campaign" (as part of the "Moscow Pool" exhibition-action). Moscow Pool, Moscow
1995 "Election Campaign" (as part of the M. Gelman Gallery project "Turnkey Party"). Polytechnic Museum, Moscow; Historical and Art Museum, Kaliningrad
"Election Campaign". Kolodzey Art Foundation. Phoenix Cultural Center, Moscow
1997 "Dmitry Kantorov". Strlezki Collection. Estrel Hotel, Berlin, Germany
1998 Phoenix Gallery, Moscow
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1979 Autumn Exhibition of MOSKH (theatre-cinema section). MOSKH Exhibition Hall, Moscow
1980 Spring Exhibition of MOSKH (theatre-cinema section). Artists' House, Moscow
Youth Exhibition. Artists' House, Moscow
All-Union Exhibition. Manege, Moscow
1981 Spring Exhibition (theatre-cinema). Artists' House, Moscow
"Season Results". WTO, Moscow
One-day exhibitions of the Sculptors' Club. Artists' House, Moscow
1982 "Youth of the Country". All-Union Exhibition of Young Artists. Manege, Moscow
"OSTT". Central House of Art Workers, Moscow
1983 Spring Exhibition. M.Gruzinskaya, Moscow
1984 15th Youth Exhibition. Artists' House, Moscow
1985 Zonal Exhibition (theatre-cinema). Manege, Moscow
16th Youth Exhibition. Artists' House, Moscow
1986 17th Youth Exhibition. Artists' House, Moscow
1987 "First Exhibition of the Avant-Garde Club (KLAVA)". "Kashirka", Moscow
2nd Auction of Contemporary Art. Moscow Branch of Culture Fund, Moscow
1988 18th Youth Exhibition. Moscow
"Labyrinth". Youth Palace, Moscow, Warsaw, Hamburg, Amsterdam
"SOVIART" (first Soviet-American Exhibition). Artists' Union Hall, Kyiv
"Eidos". Youth Palace, Moscow
"Art Fair". MOSKH booth, Basel, Switzerland
1989 "Art Contemporain Sovietique peintres et sculptures". Palais des Congres, Versailles, France
"Dialogue". "Russian Avant-Garde and Soviet Contemporary Art". Centre Boris Vian, Ville des Ulis, Paris, France
"New Art from Russia" (exhibition-auction). Hannover, Germany
"Alexandre" Gallery. Paris, France
"PN" Gallery. Warsaw, Poland
"Furmanny zaulek". Dawne Zaklady Norblina, Warsaw, Poland
1990 "Les ateliers de la rue Furmann". Zurich, Switzerland
"Preview-Review". Stewart Levi Gallery, New York, USA
"Sneak Preview". Maya Polsky Gallery, Chicago, USA
"Group Exhibition of Russian Artworks". Maya Polsky Gallery, Art Institute Club, Chicago, USA
1991 "Tokyo Art Fair". Polanka Salon. Tokyo, Japan
"Gorby in Images". Exhibitions at US universities. Philadelphia State Art Museum; Granovsky Gallery, San Francisco, USA
"Art Fair". Granovsky Gallery, Hong Kong
Exhibition at "Alex-Edmund-Russian State Museum" Gallery, New York, USA
Granovsky Gallery, San Diego, CA, USA
1992 "Gorby in Images". New York, USA
Exhibition at "Alex-Edmund-Russian State Museum" Gallery, New York, USA
1992-93 "Humanitarian Aid, Parcels for Germany. 27 Moscow Artists". Central House of Artists, Moscow; "Humanitare Hilfe, Packchen fur Deutschland". Tranenpalast, Berlin, Germany
1993 "Monuments: Transformation for the Future". ICA, New York, ISI, Moscow. Central House of Artists, Moscow
"Adresse provisoire pour l’art contemporain russe". Musee de la Poste, Paris, France
"ART MYTH 3". Eastern Gallery. Manege, Moscow
"From the Colodzey Art Foundation Collection". IBM Moscow Branch, Moscow
1994 "Ivanov" Gallery, Russian Cultural Center, Prague, Czech Republic
"Smirnoff" Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
IBS Corporate Collection (Office), Moscow
"May Exhibition". Artists' House, Moscow
1995 "From the Collection of Tanya and Natasha Kolodzei". Seven Nails Gallery, Russian-American Press Center, Moscow
"Report-show" (performance). Crimean Forum Festival. Kerch, Crimea
"Theater-Word". Regional Historical-Art Museum, Kaliningrad
"Turnkey Party". M. Gelman Gallery. Polytechnic Museum, Moscow
1996 "Galleries in Gallery", "Eastern Gallery". Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
International Art Fair "Art-Manege". Manege, Moscow
International Art Fair ART-MOSCOW. Central House of Artists, Moscow
"Eastern Melodies", "Eastern Gallery". Radisson-Slavyanskaya Hotel, Moscow
1997 International Art Fair "Art-Manege". Manege, Moscow
"Colorful World". "Eastern Gallery". Radisson-Slavyanskaya Hotel, Moscow
"Give Women Flowers". "Eastern Gallery", Moscow

Developing and deepening the main artistic principles of conceptualism and Sots Art, I work at the intersection of aesthetic and social spaces, achieving complete interchangeability of cultural and social signs, which allows for virtually unlimited aesthetic expansion into social (political, everyday, historical) spheres. Social signs introduce certain layers of public, mass consciousness into the work, and by revealing their sign nature, I, as an artist, overcome the imposed predeterminedness, the automatism of cultural reactions of contemporary thinking. Such art, for contemporary society, is a kind of aesthetic therapy, something that helps the individual maintain the possibility of full self-identification in the face of sometimes excessively growing social fetishes.

The artist Dmitry Kantorov has attempted a consistent cultural study of a truly virgin layer of Russian reality associated with the, at times, riveting drama of political struggle. The cycle titled "Advertising Campaign," comprising twelve works analytically and conventionally spread across the broad, once eagerly awaited spectrum of multiparty politics, presents the viewer with an aestheticized (and only partially parodic) version of the pre-election propaganda campaign of Russia's political parties and factions. Obviously, this is not about a routine, proportional reflection of the current political landscape—that is the business of sociologists, political scientists, and the like. The artist-investigator is interested not only in the most populous movements in their typicality and relevance, but also in some extreme manifestations—perhaps small in number but vivid in their specificity: such as the St. Petersburg group "MOLI," representing the interests of the "pink" sexual minorities and, according to rumors, counting only four female members (the work "Do You Want My Vote?").

Generally, the cycle is saturated with frank reminiscences, allusions, and conspicuous visual quotations—from the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, ancient Roman sculpture, Russian icon painting, to modern erotic and bodybuilding magazines. The author, not hiding a certain amount of sarcasm, openly highlights these cultural references, persistently demonstrating to us, through a dreamlike internal vision "through the window to Europe," the kinship of our socio-political microcosm to the global context—both historical (the evident and high classics) and topical, mundane, up to the level of Bakhtin's "material-bodily lower stratum." "We are just like them," Kantorov seems to suggest, but we clearly hear that his voice lacks both conviction and enthusiasm, and in this very "reverse effect" lies, it turns out, the author's true intent.
I. Sid