CV LEONID TISHKOV

Leonid Tishkov’s poetic and metaphysic oeuvre is realised in a diverse and often unconventional range of media, including installations, sculpture, video, photography, works on paper and books. Tishkov started his career making cartoon like works in the 1980s that focused with ironic, black humor and political aspects. Since the beginning of the 1990s, however, his work moved increasingly towards large-scale installations that aimed to engage the viewer into absurdist situations with fictional cartoon characters and an admixture of theatrical action. This theatrical performances "Dabloids", "Deep Sea Divers", “Living in the Trunks”, who after turned into installations ( “Dabloid Factory”, “Divers” bronze sculptures ). At the same time Tishkov drawn to the theme of memory, creates a set of objects, videos and photos about his native place - the Urals and late mother, using different kinds of folk art and found materials – clothing and household utensils ( “The Knitling”, 2002, “Divers from Heaven”, 2004). Since 2000 the artist intensifies the romantic, even magical tradition, which was fully manifested in a series of performances "Anthology of Heaven '(1999-2002), carried out on the roof of the artist's studio and a long-play history of "Private Moon "(2003 - 2010). For the first time made the light object in shape of crescent Moon to the installation for open space, traveled to different countries and continents including Russia, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Austria, France and Switzerland. From 2000th the artist taking part in many light festivals with light installations as Lights On Romania, Fjord Oslo, LUNA Leeuwarden and made large light public art sculptures in Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Leonid Tishkov was born into a school teacher’s family in small town of Russia, Urals in 1953, and now lives and works in Moscow. He has participated in numerous important group exhibitions including Berlin-Moscow Moscow-Berlin 1950-2000, Berlin, Martin Gropius Bau (2002), Eye on Europe, 1960 to Now - MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, NY (2006), Fabric of the Myth, Compton Verney Gallery, UK (2007), Singapore Biennale (2008) and Moscow Biennale (2009). Solo exhibitions include Nasher Museum of Duke University , Durham (1993), Museo de Arte Contemporeneo de Caracas Sofia Imber, Venezuela (1995), Block Museum, Northwestern University, Evanston (1996), Fargfabriken, Center for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden (1998), Center for Contemporary Art Uajzdowski castle, Warsaw (2007), Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan ( 2009), Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2010).

Solo Show

2021

Arctic Diary & Journey of the Private Moon. Norilsk Museum of Art

2020

Premonition of the Space. Leonid Tishkov. Kaluga Cultural Innovative Center

2019

Cosmism of Leonid Tishkov. Personal Exhibition. Belyaevo gallery, Moscow
2018
Private Moon. Personal exhibition. Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, 1 November - 31 January 2019
Cosmism of Leonid Tishkov. Personal Exhibition. Belyaevo gallery, Moscow
2017
Look At Your Home. National Contemporary Center of Art, Arsenal, Nizhny Novgorod
2016
Light All Around. Historical Architectural Museum of Tula, Russia
Look At Your Home. State Art Gallery of Perm
Look At Your Home. Krasnoyarsk Museum Center
Look At Your Home. Nizhny Tagyl Museum of Fine Arts
2015
Look At Your Home. Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts
Journey of the Private Moon in Romania. Personal exhibition. National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest
2014
Private Moon, SMENA art center, Kazan
Journey of the Private Moon in Formosa, Pechersky gallery, Moscow
2013
Diver-Lighthouse, Krokin gallery

Homecoming, HKLAM gallery, Voronez

2012
Private Moon in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Museum for Fine Arts, Taiwan
Derelict Utopias, Jiri Svestka Galley, Prague
2011
Derelict Utopias, Jiri Svestka Galley, Berlin
Whitesnow gallery, Aukland, New Zealand
Arctic Dairy, Krokin Gallery, Moscow
Leonid Tishkov, Nina Lumer Gallery, Milan
2010
Leonid Tishkov LICHTFLACHE, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich
Ballade lumineuse, Taiss gallery, Paris
Leonid Tishkov IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Private Moon, Children Art Museum, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Leonid Tishkov Creatures, OkNO gallery, Chelyabinsk, Russia
2009
Private Moon, Kaohsiung Museum for Fine Arts, Taiwan
"Light All Around", Krokin gallery, Moscow
“Origin of Species”, Ravenscourt gallery, Moscow
2008
"House of Artist", Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Deep Sea Divers", Center for Contemporary Culture, Ekaterinburg University
2007
"Look Homeward", Center for Contemporary Art Uyazdovsky castle, Warsaw
"Homework", Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Solveig", the Van Ho Culture and Art Centre, Hanoi, Vietnam
"Divers from Heaven", Central House of Artists, Moscow
2006
"Ladomir: utopian objects". Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Private Moon". Novosibirsk art museum, Russia
"Automatic letters". Pinakoteka magazine, Moscow
2005
"Creatures". State gallery of Izhevsk, Russia
"Paintings 80th". Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Creatures". Yasnaya Poliana gallery, Tula, Russia
2004
"Vodolazy". Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Apokryfos", National Contemporary Center for Art. Moscow
2003
"Leonid Tishkov & Igor Macarevich: Masters of Russia Contemporary Mythology". Gallery K, Washington, USA
2002
"Communal Pulp",gallery of the MuHA club, Moscow
2001
"Vodolazes (Deep Sea Divers)". District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, USA
"Farewell to the Christmas tree". TV-gallery, Moscow
"Creatures of the Soft World". Russian State museum of Applied art, Moscow
"ZhZL". Gallery of the MuHA club, Moscow
"Tishkov Festival". Cultural Center DOM, Moscow, Russia
2000
"Dabloids & another creatures". Nonmuseum, StPeterburg, Russia
1999
"Crystal Stomach of the Angel". Gallery Dziga, Lviv, Ukraine
"Creatures". Contemporary Art Center Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia
"Creatures". Yaroslavl' Art Museum, Russia
1998
"Dabloid Teater". Fargfabriken, Center for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden
1997
"Prothodabloids". ArtMedia Center, TV-gallery, Moscow
1996
"Creatures". Center for Contemporary Art, Chelyabinsk, Russia
"Creatures". State Art Gallery, Novosibirsk, Russia"Anatomia of Russia". Spider & Mouse Gallery, Moscow
1995
"Creatures". Museum of Art, Ekaterinburg, Russia
"Beast (TVar')". TVgallery, Moscow
"Dabloids and Elephants". Mary and Leigh Block Museum, Evanston Ill. USA
1994
"Creatures". Museo de Arte Contemporeneo de Caracas Sofia Imber, Venezuela
"La Route du Coeur". Epreuve d'Artiste gallery, Lille, France
"Stomaki". L-gallery, Moscow
"Reproduction". Center House of Artists Moscow, Moscow
1993
"Creatures". Duke University Museum of Art, Duram, NC, USA
1992
"Hard and Soft". Velta Gallery, Moscow
1991
"Not only Dabloids". Alyance Gallery, Moscow

Selected group exhibitions:

2021

LUNA multimedia art fest, Leeuwarden, Netherlands
2020

Ichihara Art-Mix Art Triennale, Japan

Minus 20 degree contemporary art fest, Flachau, Austria

Fjord Oslo Light Fest, Norway
2019
Seoutochi Triennale, Japan
The Moon. Royal Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, 22 July - 5 January 2020
La Lune. Grand Palais, Paris, 1 April - 22 July
Ticket to the Moon. Krems kunsthalle, Austria, 14 July - 3 November
Alanica Simposium, NCCA Vladikavkaz
2018
Human condition. Searching for the Place. Judish Museum, Moscow, 12 June - 19 August 
Premonitions of the Space. NCCA, Moscow
LightOnRomania, Cluj, Romania, 16 November - 31 December
No Man's Library/La Biblioteca di Tutti, Sassari, Italy, 11 May - 30 June 
2017
Man as Bird. Pushkin Museum in Venice
Ichihara Art Mix, Japan
Art Innovation prize, Museum of Architecture, Moscow
2016
Around The Square. Yaroslavl Museum of Modern Art.
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. Personal Case. Museum and Exhibition Center ‘Worker and Kolkhoz Woman’. Moscow.
Russian Cosmos. Moscow Art Multimedia Museum
2015
Balagan!!! Nordwind Fest. Kuhlhaus, Berlin. Shards of the War. National Center for Contemporary Arts, Baltic branch, Kaliningrad
Intertext. Erarta Museum, St.Peterburg
Birds and figires. Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Real in Inreal. Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju, Korea
2014
Waking Dreams, Nanjing, China
Todi festival, Private Moon, Italy
Ichihara Art Mix, Japan
Space LUCIDA, NCCA
TV gallery in NCCA, TV'ar
Playing the Circus, Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Are you ready to fly, Moscow Museum of Modern Art
The Moscow Art Map: Our Scale, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow
2013
Republic of the Moon, Bargehouse, London
Russia XXI, Contemporary sculpture from Russia, Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Nederland

Kunstenfestival Watou, Belgium
The Sky, Planetarium, Krokin Gallery, Moscow Sluisen: Changing Poles, NCCA
2012

II Industrial Urals Biennale, Ekaterinburg
Folklore and Naive Traditions in Contemporary Art, NCCA in Tcaritcino Museum, Moscow
2011
Republic of the Moon, FACT, Liverpole
Russian Cosmos, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea - Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy.
Proximity, Docks on the Seine, Paris
Paper Time, NCCA, Moscow
Home Video, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia
Illusion, Arsenal, NCCA, Nizhny Novgorod
9 Museum Biennale, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
ArtSound, RAM radiomobile museum, Roma, Italy
Blizzard, Arsenal, NCCA, Nizhny Novgorod
Earth.Cosmos.Gagarin. Krokin Gallery, Moscow
First Industrial Biennale in the Urals, Ekaterinburg
To See the Sound, NCCA, Moscow
Easter at Chekhov’s House, PL gallery, Moscow
2010
Playing the City II, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
VOIS CE QUE J'ENTENDS, Center Des Arts Enghien-Les-Bains, France
Photographie de la nouvelle Russie, La Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris
History of Russian Video Art, volume 3, MMoMA, Moscow
Photobiennale - 10, Moscow House of Photography
Summa Summarum, National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
KoMMissia, M'Ars Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennale, Russia
2009
3 Moscow Biennale, Russia
Reflection: The World Through Art, Dojima River Biennale 2009, Osaka
Thrill of the Heights, OK center, Linz, Austria
I Was Russia, Dunedin Art Museum, New Zealand
That Obscure Object of Art, collection of Stella Art Foundation , Palacco Ca' Rezzonico Venice
Past Future Perfect, Calvert22, London
Another Mythology, NCCA, Moscow
Russian Dreams…, Bass Museum of Art, Maiami
Walking a Fine Line. Russian Video Art, Monkey Town, NY,
SCOPE art fairs, NY, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado at Boulder ,USA
ARCO, Madrid
Alice in Wonderland, PL Gallery, Moscow
History of Russian Video Art, volume 2, MMoMA, Moscow
Russian Video Art, Egon Schiele Art Centrum Cesky Krumlov
Tales of Brothers Yung, Laboratory Gallery, Moscow
2008
"Stars of Russian Video Art", North West Film Forum, Seattle
"Singapore Biennale", Singapore
"The Fabric of Myth", Compton Verney Gallery, GB
"A(rt)R(ussia)T(oday)-index", Latvian National Museum of Art
"Teleport Teleport Fargfabriken", Fargfabriken Norr, Ostersund, Norway
"100 Years of the Tungussky Meteorit", Krasnoyarsk Museum Center, Russia
"Fest of Private collection", Ravenscourt Gallery, Moscow, Russia
"This not Food", ERA Foundation, Moscow, Russia
"IMPRINT, Russian artist-publishers" Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Brussels, Belgium
"Dots", Museum of Contemporary Art, Rostov, Russia
"REVERS DU REEL", l'espace Michel Journiac, Sorbonne, Paris
"Moscow News", Art Center "Gallery", Izhevsk, Russia
"Process & Alchemy", Civilian Art Project, Washington DC, USA
"Radikale Alltдglichkeit", Culture Xchange Center, Wien, Austria
History of Russian Video Art, volume 1, MMoMA, Moscow
Process & Alchemy, Civillian Art Project, Washigton DC, USA
ArtParis
2007
"Photobiennale", Branly Museum, Paris
"Adventure of the Black Square", State Russian Museum
"Progressive Nostalgia", Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci Prato, Italy
"The Time of storytellers", KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
"Return to Memory", KUMU Museum of Contemporary Art, Tallinn, Estonia
"Architecture Ad marginem", State Russian Museum, St.petersburg
"Avanto,videofest", KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennale
"Barocco", Moscow Museum of Moderm Art
"Big Water Art Fest", Art Gallery of Yugra, Hanty-Mansyiask, Russia
"Words and Image", NCCA, Moscow,
"Tired Snow Videofest", Rodina Cinema Center, St.Peterburg
2006
Eye on Europe,MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, NY
Contemporary Russian Photography,Fotomuseum, Antwerpen,
Russian Book art XX century, Bibliotheca Wittocania, Brussel
Innovations,State Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
Photobiennale 10, Moscow,
Codes of culture, Video Art from 7 Continents, ArteBA 2006, Black box/white cube video-space by The Project Room N.Y., Buenos Aires, Argentina
Moscow artist's message, Private moon,Nanto cultural center, Japan
2005
7 sins,Museum of modern art, Lubliana, Slovenia,
Beyond of red horizon: Moscow-Warsaw,Center for contemporary art Uyasvyadosky zamok,Warsaw
Moscow Breakthrough, Contemporary Russian Artists,Bargehouse, London
2004
Moscow-Berlin1950-2000, State Historical Museum,
MoscowDirection: South-North,Manez, Moscow, KINO gallery, Moscow
IX Art Forum,New Manez, Moscow
I International contemporary art exhibition,Bishkek Art Museum, Kirkizstan
2003
Moscow-Berlin1950-2000, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin
Direction:West,KINO gallery,New Manez,Moscow
Paracrafts,Cheboksary Art Museum, Graphic art of XXth century,Tretyakov Gallery, MoscowArtMoscow Studio, Moscow
Detende: Russian Contemporary Art Video Format,Slought Foundation, Philadelfia
Invisible Cities,Queen's University, Belfast
Artkliazma Fest, Moscow
2002
ArtMoscow Studio, Moscow VII Art Forum,New Manez,Moscow
2001
The View from Here, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, VA,USA
VI Art Forum,New Manez,Moscow,
Direction:East,New Manez, KINO gallery,Moscow
2000
View from Here,Tretyakov Gallery,Moscow
The Body Memory,Petropavlavski krepost',SPb
Serials,Manez,Moscow
1999
Russian videoart,Kuntshalle Faust,Hannover,
Cinematexas, video festival
Russian Samizdat & Artist's books,Grafeion gallery,Praha,Contemporary Art Museum of Andy Warhol, Slovakiya
Space of a Book,Yaroslavl Art Museum,
RussiaArtit's books 70th-90th.Pushkin Art Museum, Moscow
1998
Praprintium,State Berliner Library, Bochum Museum, Furniture of Sven Lundh's Studio,Fargfabriken,Center for Contemporary Art,Stockholm
Sences Test Station,International Forum of ArtNew Maneze,Moscow
Art Books of the 90th,Montpelier Art Center, USA
1997
Portfolios for Portfolio Kunst,Albertina Museum
Russian Silkskreens from Moscow Studio,Corcoran Art Gallery, USARussian Artists from Moscow Studio,Mimi Ferst Gallery, NY
Dablus & Do press,UFSA University Library, Antwerpen,Belgium
SAMIZDAT East Europe, Douglas F.Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, USA
1996
Moscow Conceptual Aritsts,Duke University Museum of Art
Contemporary Russian Artists` Books, Aberystwyth Art Centre, Boise, IDAHO,USAGlyn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, GB The John Rylands University Library,Manchester, GB
Nordgrafia 96,Gotland Konst Museum, Visby, Sweden
1995
Contemporary Russian Artists` Books,Stormont Rooms, Rye, GB
Avanguarde Russian Books,British Museum's LibrarySAGA 96, Alain Buyse Editeur, Paris
Russian Comics Strip,Centre Belge de la Bande Dessine, Brussel
1994
For Memory of Kashirka,Spider & Mouse Gallery, Moscow
Artists Books,Ekaterinburg Art Museum, Russia,Paper Theatre, Anna Akhmatova Museum, Peterburg,
SAGA 95, Alain Buyse Editeur,Paris
1993
A Time of Transition,City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, GB Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, GB New Territory of Art ,Art Center of Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Livres d'artistes Russes et Sovietiques,Art center of Userch, France
1992
International Exhibition of Visual Poetry,Pankow Gallery,Berlin
Russian Artist's Books,Lyric-Cabinette, Munich
1991
Furmanny's Artists,Martigni Art Center, Switzerland,Agasphere, Moscow Yung Palace
1990
Transfuture.International Visual Poetry,Hauptmanschule,Kassel,
Concrete.International Exhibition of Visual Poetry,City Museum of Gotha



 Everlasting returns

Leonid Tishkov’s works have come into being in our culture through nearly all fundamental artistic strategies – objects, paintings, installations, video art, performance, artist’s books. There is no denying that this body of work could be examined as a matrix, a model of an "autobiographical" phenomenon in contemporary integral art. The organic ties of this monolith, stemming from non-aesthetic sources, such as: the Ural mountains - the artist’s birthplace and the boundary between the East and the West; the topography of this very place – its mountain ranges and valleys; Tishkov’s peasant roots, which reach far back and are connected with his rustic sense of culture, which was later reinforced by basic knowledge resulting form his contact with educational institutions; the profession of a teacher, practiced by his father, as well as his own, that of a medical doctor, which influenced the geophysical character of the artist’s oeuvre. All of the above-mentioned factors shed only a little light on the determinability of the auto-biographical semantics of his, seemingly autonomous, artistic life. Cultural context transforms Tishkov’s work, and his very existence, into an uniform text which reveals its meaning with reference to completely different traditions and categories that the artistic reality in its basic form. Tishkov breathes and sways in a borderline situation, between art and life, transforming into an "opus" (the auto-bio-graphy described extensively by Valerij Podoroga’s artistic group), converting himself into a condition of the work’s existence, and refusing the contemporary "here-and-now". In one of his video works Leonid Tishkov, slowly, as if in a child’s dream, climbs the Kukan mountain – the mountain in the foot of which he spent his childhood. "Waving his wings", like Yves Klein once did, he ascends into the Great Nothing. Where, as he often says himself, everything is "upside down" and exists in the binary system: the up and the down, the color and its lack, sound and silence, myth and reality. Tishkov’s love for the "fabric", the "matter", constantly drives him to the process of materializing issues from the sphere of ideas – towards the “rag dolls from his childhood", towards the greater form of touch, when all human organs are able to feel the world, towards crating Cosmos as a refuge for all that is born. The connection between the matter, the mother, the womb and the continent (Russian "matka" and "matierika") in Tishkov’s artistic system illustrates the real depth of his mythical-poetic consciousness. The artist reconstructs his birth “place”, conveys its matrix-like aspect, its predilection to divisions, to duplications, to dabloidation. The phenomenal aspect of this space is realized in objects, the holy amulets of the primeval, as in the case of Joseph Beuys’s birth of prime-objects which accumulate the space around them and, as Martin Heidegger wrote "make it possible for a man to live among objects".For Leonid Tishkov, descending into the "underworld" is situated on the opposite pole of the tradition of journeys to the kingdom of death, described by Dante Alghieri in his "Divine Comedy". In the sacred center of the "underworld", the "crystal stomach of an angel" opens before the artist – an image which is symmetrical to that of a stone flower found in Bazov’s fairy tales from the Ural region. It is one of Tishkov’s best video works, referring to complete good, communion and blessedness. The way from the "underworld" becomes a way to heaven. It is – in the philosophy of Laozi – "all-encompassing, fixed, clear and high". Those features become visible in a Zen koan, in the flapping of wings, in the overcoming of time and space, in the evolutionary circle in which Leonid Tishkov’s work is located".
Text by Vitaly Patsyukov