Andrei Molodkin
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Former Russian soldier and conceptual artist, Andrei Molodkin critically addresses contemporary cultural and geopolitical issues through his work. Criticism of the symbolic order is the main theme of Molodkin's work as he uses his art to rework popular ideas of culture. He is a master draftsman and sculptor working with two untraditional and non-artistic materials; the ballpoint pen and crude oil.
Andrei began his ballpoint pen drawings while he served in the Soviet army, where soldiers were issued two pens a month to write letters. In a labor-intensive process and with great precision, the artist draws precisely with a simple ballpoint pen on his gigantic canvas drawings. Many times the pens are symbols of life itself, in the sense that the used-up pen (the dead) is immediately replaced by a new generation. Each of them is destined to work obsessively at any price, until the last drop of ink-blood has been used, thus creating the illusion of a continuous, living process.
By transforming oil from an organic resource into an aesthetic form, the artist raises important questions regarding the role of oil within our contemporary Western culture. He explores the clash between culture, religion, economy and politics when he uses recognizable religious images or cultural iconography as his subject matter. Molodkin believes that the oil industry is the flesh and blood of Western economy and he comments on how a national resource can become a national identity.
His exhibition "Sweet Crude American Dream" was presented at Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, NY. [1], and "Guts à la Russe" at Orel Art Gallery, Paris, in April-May 2008 [2]
Andrei Molodkin's work received international critical acclaim and was reviewed favorably by numerous publications including The New York Times, Art Forum, Village Voice, The Guardian and BBC News. The artist currently lives and works between Paris and Moscow. His works are held in private collections in The State Russian Museum, Saint-Petersburg, the S. Freud Museum, Saint-Petersburg and in the collection of Schusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 Guts à la Russe, Orel Art Gallery, Paris [3]
2007 G8, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland Sweet Crude American Dream, Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, New York
2006 Cold War II, Orel Art Gallery, Paris Empire at War, Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, New York Sweet Crude Eternity, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
2005 Sweet crude Eternity, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York
2004 Notre Patrimoine, European Parliament, Brussels Trash resources, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York
2003 Love Copyright, Orel Art Presenta Gallery, Paris Love Copyright, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York
2002 Polius, Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière, Orel Art Presenta Gallery, Paris Carré Noir Gallery, Paris
2001 Novo Novosibirsk, The Marble Palace, Russian State Museum, St. Petersburg Blue Dream, Freud’s Dream Museum, St. Petersburg
1999 Novo Novosibirsk, Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière, Paris
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2007
East/West, Orel Art Gallery, Paris [4]
Moscow World Fine Art Fair, Orel Art Gallery, Moscow
Art Moscow, Orel Art Gallery, Moscow
Paper Trails- New Adventures in Drawing, VI Gallery, Denmark.
DIFC Gulf Art Fair, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Dubai
Art Paris Abu Dhabi, Orel Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, EAU
Art Paris, Orel Art Gallery, Paris
Bushels, Bundles and Barrels, Superfund, New York
2006
Petrodollar, Pierogi and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Miami
The Kiss, Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, Scope, Miami
Modus R, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami
Madame Butterfly, Priska Pasquer Gallery, Paris Photo, Paris
God is Great, Guelman Gallery, Art Moscow, Moscow
Life After Death, Orel Art Gallery, Art Moscow, Moscow
Art Attack! (Russian contemporary art), Orel Art Gallery, Paris
2005
Black Heart, Orel Art Gallery, Paris
Liquid Madonna, Orel Art Gallery, FIAC, Paris
Scope, Orel Art Gallery, London
Art Moscow, Orel Art Gallery, Moscow
2004
Trash Ressources, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York
Our Patrimony, European Parliament, Brussels
Playing For Oil, Flash Art Milan, Orel Art Gallery, Milan
Art Brussels, Orel Art Gallery, Brussels
Art Moscow, Orel Art Gallery, Moscow
2003
Love Copyright, Art Moscow, Orel Art Gallery, Moscow
Underground City, Labin, Croatia
New Beginning of Contemporary Art of Moscow, Düsseldorf, Germany
2002
Polus, Photobiennale 2002, House of the Photography, Moscow
Body as Sculpture, Carré Noir Gallery, Paris Photo, Paris
Biesterfeld Art Management, St. Moritz, Switzerland
2001
Novonovosibirsk, Russian National Museum, Saint Petersburg
New Academy, Saint Petersburg
Private Art Gallery, Saint Petersburg
" Freud's Dream " Museum, Saint Petersburg
Novonovosibirsk, Schusev National Museum of Architecture, Moscow
Paris Photo Fair 2001, Carrousel of the Louvre, Carré Noir Gallery, Paris
Museum of the Photography House, Moscow
2000
Photobiennale 2000, House of the Photography, Moscow
Novonovosibirsk, Instrumenta, Novy Manege, Douma, Moscow
Paris Photo Fair 2000, Louvre Carrousel, Carré Noir Gallery, Paris
1999
Art Manege 99, Yakut Gallery, Moscow
COLLECTIONS
Collection of The State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg Collection of S. Freud Museum, Saint Petersburg Collection of Schusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow And private collectors in Europe and The United States
RECENT PRESS
Bon, September 2007 ; National Geographic, August 2007 ; Art Actuel, March-April 2007, France ; CMagazine, Oct. 2006 (Victor Tupitsyn); MonsterChildren, Oct. 2006 (Campbell Milligan); Sculpture Magazine, Oct. 2006 ; Guardian Unlimited, Feb.23, 2006 (Paul Arendt); The Ticket, BBC World Service, Feb.18, 2006 (Mark Coles); BBC News, Feb.17, 2006; Artmargins, 2006 (Yulia Tikhonova); Spoon, Jan.-Feb. 2006 (Anna Sansom); The Village Voice, Vol.52, Dec.28, 2005 - Jan.3, 2006 (Baker); The Village Voice, « Graphic Marvels », 30 November 2006; The Village Voice, « Art Imitates Death », 22-28 November 2006; The New-York Times, “Art Listing”, 5 September 2003;
MEDIA EVENTS
Tracks, “Art Provo Russe”, Arte Television, 21 September 2006 ; Mark Coles, “The Ticket”, BBC World Service, 18 February 2006 ; Frédéric Taddei, “Paris Dernière”, Paris Première, 22 April 2005 ;
LITTERATURE: Andrei Molodkin: Cold War II, eds. Victor Tupitsyn and Margarita Tupitsyn, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Zurich, 2007.
