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HomeRecent EventsExhibition of Ivan Sotnikov, Battle with the Squirrel

Recent events

Exhibition of Ivan Sotnikov, Battle with the Squirrel

Exhibition of Ivan Sotnikov, Battle with the Squirrel
10 March — 22 April, 2017
London

The first UK solo exhibition of works by Ivan Sotnikov, one of the most outstanding and prolific artists to come out of the legendary non-conformist scene of 1980s Leningrad, member of the New Artists group, is being held in White Space Gallery, London.

The exhibition is supported by Foundation A and brings together a selection of Sotnikov’s paintings from his Battle with the Squirrel series. Executed in the last few years of his life, the works encapsulate the distinctive artistic mythology and iconography present throughout his career.

The exhibition also features a rare three-dimensional work, Utyugon (1982/2014). Part sculpture, part sound-piece, Utyugon is a fantastical musical instrument made of scrap metal, domestic irons and a wooden kitchen table which could be amplified with pickups. The suspended irons, hanging below the table on wires, were manipulated by knives to create unusual sounds. First played by Sotnikov at Club-81, Leningrad in 1982, its presence in the exhibition reveals an additional, performative dimension to the artist’s uncompromising approach offering a savage expression of creative and personal independence and a concrete celebration of his stylistic recklessness.