Artists

		Artworks: Click here
		KULIK, Oleg

Biographical information: Born in Kiev in 1961
1979 graduated from Kiev Art School
1982 graduated from Geological Institute, Kiev
Lives and works in Moscow
Collections where works are held
Participation in exhibitions and auctions: SOLO EXIBITIONS:

2007
Retrospective exhibition, Central House of Artist, Moscow
Museum of Nature or New Paradise, Nina Lumer Gallery, Milan
2003
Oleg Kulik. Center for Contemporary Art, Naples
Slogans. Regina Gallery, Moscow
2001
Deep into Russia. S.M.A.K, Gent
Two Kuliks. Ikon Gallery, Burmingham
2000
Oleg Kulik in Warsaw. Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw
Lolita vs. Alica. Galerie Rabouan-Moussion, Paris
1999
Red Room. XL Gallery, Moscow
Russian. Regina Gallery, Moscow
1998
Oleg Kulik. Galerie Rabouan-Moussion, Paris
Oleg Kulik. Center for Contemporary Art, Riga
1997
Family of the Future. M.Guelman Gallery, XL Gallery, Moscow
Virtual Dog. M.Guelman Gallery, Moscow
I Bite America & America Bites Me (together with Mila Bredikhina). Deitch Projects, New York
1995
My Family, or the Nature is Perfect. M.Guelman Gallery, Moscow
The Same and Skotinin. XL Gallery, Moscow
The End of History. XL Gallery, Moscow
1994
I Love Gorby. M.Guelman Gallery, Moscow
1989
Presentiment of Unliberty. Palace of Youth, Moscow
1988
Paradox as a Method. Exhibitional Hall of Sevastopolsky region, Moscow

GROUP EXIBITIONS:

2007
Sots Art. Political Art in Russia and China, State Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val (New Tretyakov Gallery)
The Diary of an Artist, Central House of Artists
2006
Crossing Frontiers – The Artistic Search for the Identity in the Eastern Europe,
Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg Origin of Species
Reiz und Risiko, Museum Haus für Kunst
Uri, Altdorf, Switzerland
Art in Epoch of Social Darvinism,
The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan
Videoinstallation of Oleg Kulik Performances, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, CCA in Kiev and Lublana
Tretiakovskaya Gallery 20th Century, Moscow
Russia! S. Guggenheim Museum, New York; S. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
2005
StarZ. Within the framework of the 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow
Always a Little Further. Arsenale, 51 Biennale di Venezia
Angels of History – Moscow Conceptualism and its influence. Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (MuHKA), Antwerpen
2004
FIAC, M. Guelman Gallery booth, Paris
2003
Live Culture/Живая культура. Tate Modern, Лондон
Horizons of Reality/Горизонты реальности, Muhka, Антверпен
Lozung/Message, Государственный Русский музей, Санкт-Петербург
The Ideal City/Идеальный город. II Bienniale de Valencia, Валенсия
Absolute Generation/Абсолют-поколение, 50 Venice Bienniale, Palazzo Zenobio, Венеция
Berlin - Moskau/Москва-Берлин. 1950-2000. Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; State Historical Museum, Moscow
Bunker. Bunker, Berlin
2002
Moskau: Paradise. Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna
Le Tribu dell`arte. City Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome
Under the Skin. Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg
IV Cetinjski Biennale, Museum of History and Arts, Cetine
The Russian Patient. Freud Museum, London
Davaj!: Russian Art Now, Postfuhrant, Berlin; MAK, Vienna
Socialais exhibicionisms. Latvian Museum of Photography, Riga
2001
49 Venice Bienniale. Yugoslavian Pavilion, Venice
The Body & Sin (Art Is the Virtue of Communication). I Biennale de Valencia, Valencia
Trans Sexual Express Barcelona. Centre d`Art Santa Monica, Barcelona
2000
L`Autre moitie de l`Europe. Jeu de Paume, Paris
Performing Bodies. Tate Modern, London
Nordic, Baltic and Russian photography. Finnish Museum of Photography (Cable Factory), Helsinki
Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Oberhausen
Videoentropy. Center of Contemporary Art, Kiev
Herausforderung Tier – von Beuys bis Kabakov (Animal Challenge). Stadtlische Galerie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe
1999
Fauna. State Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow
Locally Interested. National Gallery for Foreign Art, Sofia
After the Wall. Modern Museum, Stockholm
Moskau heute. Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent
1998
International Month of Photography, Moscow
L`Arte dans le monde, Passage de Retz, Paris
Die Medialization. Edsvik konst och kultur, Stockholm
Public Interest. Central House of Artists, Kiev
Sommerausstellung. Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent
Flesh and Fall. Gallery Art Kiosk, Brussel
Body and the East. Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana
Spectacle de Groupe. FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Nantes
XXIV Sao Paolo biennale, Sao Paolo
1997
Virtual Dog. M. Guelman Gallery, Moscow
It`s a Better World (together with Mila Bredikhina). Wiener Secession, Vienna
Europarte. Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, XLVII Venice Biennale, Venice
I Lioghi Ritrovatti. CCA, Serre Di Rapolano, Siena
Biennale Selest`Art (together with Mila Bredikhina), Center of Contemporary Art, Selesta
1996
Interpol. Fargfabriken, Stockholm
Manifesta I (together with Mila Bredikhina). V-2, Rotherdam
De Rode Poort. Museum van Hadendaagse Kunst, Gent
Discort: Sabotage of Realities (together with Mila Bredikhina). Kunsthalle, Hamburg
1995
No Man`s Land (together with Mila Bredikhina). Center of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen
Kiev Encounter. XL Gallery, Moscow; House of Ukraine, Kiev
Kunst im Verborgenen. Documenta-Halle, Kassel
Multiplication. Tsaritsyno Museum, Moscow
Der Grosse Zurcher Ausstellung. Kunsthause Orlikon, Zurich
1993
Devoted to the VII Congress of the Delegates. M. Guelman Gallery in the Central House of Artist, Moscow
Book Exhibition. Lenin Library, Moscow
1992
Apology of Shyness, or the First Hand Art. Regina Gallery, Moscow
On Transparency. Regina Gallery, Moscow; Zimenki village
Philosophy of a Name. Center of Contemporary Art on Yakimanka, Moscow
1990
Logic of Paradox. Palace of Youth, Moscow
Zen. Exhibition Hall at Kashirka, Moscow
Avant-garde-90. Central Exhibition Hall Manege, Moscow
1989
Out of Genre. Palace of Youth, Moscow

2007 Curatorial project: I Believe, art-centre Winzavod, Moscow
Autobiographical notes
What the critics say: Oleg Kulik ranks among the most interesting Russian artists of the nineties. Alongside with Ilya Kabakov, he has won the greatest acclaim from international art critics. He has displayed his works at, among others, Manifesta I in Rotterdam, Holland (1996), the Venice Biennial (1997), and at the Biennials of Istanbul, Turkey (1997) and Sao Paulo, Brazil (1998). He has managed to attract attention of art critics and exhibition curators the world over by his performance shows characterised by `strong` expression, where he himself assumes a role of `artist-animal`, or, more specifically, `artist-dog`; or else, at times, he would be a bird, a fish, a bull. The artist thus asks the basic question about the essence of the human in a human, and what a reverting to the state of `original animal` may mean to him or her.
These shows are under full control and are reasonable, too. At the same time, it is an `export art`. The artist refers to the prevailing Western conviction that Russians are some uncivilised race, one of savages living in the never-explored steppes of Asia. The `artist-dog` figure takes roots also, in this specific case, in a deep conviction that in the present-day world, traditional means of communication have proved a failure and that people should rather seek for a more adequate way of how to communicate. They have ceased reacting to messages conveyed in an articulated and narrative language; instead, what they can react to is only shock or show. To Kulik, this - along with the victory of mafia and the fading of intelligentsia - testifies to an end of culture, consciousness, and anthropology - in a broad meaning of the latter word. Nonetheless, in his art, he tries to reveal a post-human rather than a pre-human attitude. The essence here is a naive belief that artistic dialogue is possible.
Thus, Kulik has become a `doggy` artist. His early performances, originated directly in the Russian realities of the 1990`s. Those were crime-generating and brutal, and so, the Kulik shows were close in expression to the theatre of cruelty of 1990`s. Naked, the artist walked on all fours, smeared with mud and snow, and attacked the crowd, growling at the people and biting them. In the Russian society, in parallel with the fading of cultural institutions, a cultural context has faded, too; the only context that this society lives in is politics, and thus Kulik`s art refers to such a context.
The artist has even founded an `animal party` and announced himself a candidate in the general presidential election, in disguise of a bull; some of his actions become then pre-electional shows. In the `export` variety of his works, the artist exposes the mechanisms of colonialism taken as part of the Western `received views`. Namely, people of the West still tend to treat artists from Russia as ones of a second, or perhaps even third, rank. The problem is really deeper and has to do with a whole array of conflicts as might appear against the East-West relationships. As a Russian critic wrote, `the artist`s gesture of walking on all fours has been generously generated by the entire mass-media context of the recent period`. The dog performed by Kulik is of Russian nationality.
Kulik`s animal projects are also rooted in a deeply ecological attitude, combined with a critical approach toward anthropocentrism, to which the artist adheres. The assumption, utopian as it is, is that animals are treated as equal to humans, in all facets of life. In what he says in public, the artist attempts at encouraging the scientists to examine animal psychology, which would result in building a dialogue relation between man and animal. The artist highlights that man is but a part of this planet`s biosphere, and as such should build a society that would base on a symbiosis of Nature and human beings.
His favourite hero is dog. Dogs have since long ago been anthropomorfised by the society; some people tend to love their pet dogs more than other humans; there are dog hotels, dog restaurants, dog hospitals or dog clothing shops.The present exhibition shows two Oleg Kulik projects, entitled Family of the Future and Pigeonhouse. The former was presented, in a theoretic form and as a collection of drawings, in the Europarte at the Venice Biennial of 1997 and at the Istanbul Biennial of the same year.
It is an appartment for a family consisting of a man and a dog, which, at first sight, looks like other houses that we know.Only after quite a while does the spectator realise that certain things there look differently; the interior might be compared, they may think, to a flat adjusted to the needs of a handicapped person. The scale of equipment or the home video library are different; the wall-paper displays some drawings, as it were, from the Kama-Sutra (the lovers being a man and a dog).
The work, along with Pigeonhouse, is actually part of a broader project named Zoophrenia and concerning the theme of `Animal as human being`s alter-ego`, or, `Animal as the anthropomorphic Alien`. The project is devoted to contacts of man-of-culture with other natural species treated as equal-rank beings.

Ewa Gorzadek
Bibliography: No information available

* - This information has been provided by the Soros Center for Contemporary

Request more information about artist