Millennials in Contemporary Russian Art. The State Russian Museum. 2021.

4 march 2021 - 14 june 2021

The exhibition dedicated to the work of artists of the Millennial generation from Saint-Petersburg. The curators of the project rejected a strict age definition and focused on the concept of generational change. Millennials or Generation Y - those who were born in the 1980s-1990s and entered the new millennium at a young age. This generation is characterized by the difficult self-identification and the attention to the problem of self-presentation, reflected in the authors' attempt to talk more about their individual experiences, their fears, traumas, or fantasy worlds.


On the other hand, many Millennial artists emphasize the "external" side of art. The authors demonstrate a special attitude to the material and technique of their work. Drawing becomes more than a drawing (K. Benkovich and A. Fatkhullina bring it into three-dimensional space, T. Akhmetgalieva uses threads instead of lines, L. Tskhe shifts the accent from the result to the process of drawing). Pixel aesthetics is transformed into the form of traditional mosaics (I. Tuzov); artificial intelligence is used to create an artistic image (E. Kraft); computer aesthetics and computer graphics influence the creation of three-dimensional art objects (M. Svishchev). Important for the generation of 30-year-olds is the desire to bring art into the public space, on the streets.


The exhibition includes works by more than 40 authors performed in various techniques, largely caused by the general interest of artists in experimenting with the material. In addition to paintings, the exhibition will include graphics, objects, sculptures, installations, and videos.

Among the participants of the project are Vladimir Abikh, Anna Andrzhievskaya, Tatiana Akhmetgalieva, Konstantin Benkovich, Stas Bags, Liza Bobkova, Sasha Braulov, Alexander Dashevskiy, Daniel Vasiliev, Arthur Jarullaev, Marya Dmitrieva, Irina Drozd, Pyotr Dyakov, Sasha Zubritskaya, Maxim Ima, Nadezhda Kosinskaya, Egor Kraft, Vlad Kulkov, Alexandra Lerman, Asya Marakulina, Misha Marker, Anna Martynenko, Semyon Motolyanets, Lera Nibiru, Alexandra Ominina, Polina Orlova, Denis Patrakeyev, Pavel Pletnev, Ivan Plusch, Victoria Poviraeva, Pokras Lampas, Konstantin Reshetnikov, Maxim Svishev, Nikita Seleznev, Marina Stakhieva, Alena Tereshko, Ivan Tuzov, Antonina Fatkhullina, Nestor Kharchenko, Fedor Hiroshige, Alexander Tsikarishvili, Leonid Tskhe, Nestor Engelke and others.


The exhibition is supported by the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation.