nothing to be surprised about

Dmitry Gutov

May 24 — June 30, 2013
MMOMA

MMOMA, with the support of the Triumph Gallery, presents a large-scale retrospective of Dmitry Gutov, one of the most prominent Russian artists who emerged in the late 1980s.

Gutov has participated in the Venice Biennale (1995, 2007, 2011), Documenta (2007), Manifesta (1996), the Istanbul Biennale (1992), the Valencia Biennale (2001), the São Paulo Biennale (2002), the Sydney Biennale (2006), the Shanghai Biennale (2012), the New York Volta (2009), and key exhibitions of contemporary Russian art abroad. His works have been exhibited at leading cultural venues in Russia (State Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Museum, MAMM, Perm-36), the United States (Guggenheim Museum), France (Louvre), Finland (KIASMA), and other countries.

Over the black mud (with T. Filippova)
1994
Installation, mud, wooden boards
Size varies

Gutov has participated in the Venice Biennale (1995, 2007, 2011), Documenta (2007), Manifesta (1996), the Istanbul Biennale (1992), the Valencia Biennale (2001), the São Paulo Biennale (2002), the Sydney Biennale (2006), the Shanghai Biennale (2012), the New York Volta (2009), and key exhibitions of contemporary Russian art abroad. His works have been exhibited at leading cultural venues in Russia (State Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Museum, MAMM, Perm-36), the United States (Guggenheim Museum), France (Louvre), Finland (KIASMA), and other countries.

The exhibition "There's Nothing to Be Surprised About" (photography, video, metal works, installations, graphics, and paintings) covers Gutov’s 25-year creative journey since 1988. The exhibition will feature metal spatial sculptures from the series "Rembrandt's Drawings," "Icons," and several series dedicated to Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. On other floors of the museum, visitors will find photo and video projects that depict the harsh realities of Russian life in the 1990s, such as "Uryupinsk" and "The Blind," as well as videos like "Easy Sleep," "The Thaw," and "New Year," which reflect the mood of the 2000s.

The retrospective exhibition at MMOMA will focus on photographs and videos of installations created by Dmitry Gutov after 1991. "Volans", "Hammock", "The 60s, Love Again", "Shostakovich", "Feet", "Parallax", and other works will be presented together with texts by contemporary art theorists, art critics, curators, and artists, including Victor Misiano, Ekaterina Dyogot, Andrey Kovalev, and Anatoly Osmolovsky, including newspaper clippings reflecting the development of contemporary art criticism in Russia. A separate floor will be dedicated to Gutov’s paintings. The exhibition will include works from the series "Dilettantism in Art," "Cosmos," "King Lear," "Still Lifes," "Words Are Also Deeds," "Before 70," and others. Many of the works presented at MMOMA have not been exhibited for over 20 years or have never been shown before. The title of the exhibition refers to the artist’s favorite phrase from Mikhail Lifshits’s work "The Crisis of Disgust": "Those who have read Montaigne know that nothing can surprise humanity."