EXHIBITION TO BE WITH ART. MANEGE CEH, SAINT PETERSBURG. 2022

16 june 2022 - 19 june 2022

To Be With Art was the name of a special exhibition project prepared for the "Collections" section of the fair "1703" by Marina Gisich Gallery, one of the first and most experienced galleries from St. Petersburg. The central theme of "1703" this year is collecting, that is why the first floor of the CEH Manege is focused on the exhibition of private collections with the curatorial areas of the main galleries of St. Petersburg - Marina Gisich Gallery and Karelian Gallery. The goal of the non-commercial section of the fair is to inform the audience about contemporary collection formation practices and to emphasize the importance of collectors as one of the driving forces in the art process.




The project invites the viewer to reflect on what it means to be with art these days. The gallery presents the results of over 20 years of work to promote dialogue with art as a way of life and tells the story of the collectors whose collections are the result of painstaking collaboration with Marina Gisich Gallery. The curator is Marina Gisich (Marina Gisich Gallery). Contemporary art from the private collections of Zenit club players and Marina Gisich Gallery collection. A special place among the gallery's collectors belongs to the famous sportsmen, whose destiny is inextricably linked with the soccer club Zenit. Along with works from the family collections of Natalia and Konstantin Zyryanov, Ekaterina and Vyacheslav Malafeev, Anna and Sergey Semak, Ekaterina and Igor Smolnikov, Victoria and Oleg Shatovs, Veronika and Alexander Yerokhin, important works from the personal collection of Marina Gisich are also represented.




"What does it mean to be with art these days? A way of life? A way of thinking? To be involved in something that is beyond time and space? The task of the gallery business in Russia today is not only to sell certain works, but to promote a certain way of life in dialogue with art, which is born in our contemporary generation. To be with art does not necessarily mean to possess it, yet this section of the fair is dedicated to the heroes of their time - the collectors who once allowed themselves to open the door to another world. For the first edition of the fair the team of Marina Gisich Gallery, one of the oldest and most experienced galleries in St.Petersburg, has prepared a special exhibition project that is very closely connected to the city". "To be with art" was the title of the book-research which was published for the gallery's 20-year anniversary. For more than ten years a number of famous soccer club "Zenit" sportsmen have taken a special place among collectors of the gallery. Since 2011, this painstaking team effort has resulted in a remarkable collection - as of today, the family collections of six of the club's players include about 100 works which represent a cross-section of contemporary Russian art, with a particular emphasis on works by St Petersburg artists. The exhibition at the Manege is an opportunity to share the experience of a trusting relationship between a gallery owner and a collector that has become a "team game". To Be With Art will also present the iconic works from the personal collection of Marina Gisich".




THE ART NEWSPAPER RUSSIA