Exhibition Opening and Discussion

Please join the Russian American Cultural Center (RACC) for the opening of the exhibit Russian Émigré Artists in New York–The Real Thing, on view at the Harriman Institute October 22-November 20, 2018.  This event will include a presentation of documentaries dedicated to the exhibitions of Russian and American artists curated by Regina Khidekel “5+5” (1995) and “Soviet Sots Art and American Pop Art. It’s the Real Thing”, and a discussion with Regina Khidekel, curator and founding Director of the Russian American Cultural Center and Lazar Khidekel Society, and Alla Rosenfeld, research consultant and curator, followed by a reception.

Many Russian émigré artists have invigorated the New York art scene over the past three decades. The '90s was a particularly vibrant decade for integration and the search for relevance in the realm of contemporary art and critical discourse, areas that had been lacking in Russia during the post-Soviet transition. This exhibition aims to revitalize the history of Russian artists in New York during the 1990s and early 2000s.

The exhibit and related publication will display artwork, photos, and documents from the extensive archive of the Russian American Cultural Center (RACC). Exhibited artists will include Irina Nakhova, Leonid Lerman, Grisha Bruskin, Vitaly Komar and Aleksandr Melamid, Alexander Kosolapov, Leonid Sokov, Ilia Kabakov, Mikhail Roginsky, Oskar Rabin, Dmitry Borshch, George Tsypin, Yona Verwer, Julia Nitsberg, and Leonid Lubianitsky.

This series marks the 20th Anniversary of RACC, and highlights 25 years of curatorial work in the U.S. by art historian and RACC founder Regina Khidekel.

Dr. Regina Khidekel is a curator and the founding director of the Russian American Cultural Center and the Lazar Khidekel Society. In 1990, she became the Art Director of the Diaghilev Art Center, which was the first unofficial art organization in St. Petersburg after perestroika. Since her arrival in the United States in 1993, Dr. Khidekel has made her mark on the NYC art scene, curating dozens of large-scale exhibitions such as 5+5 (1995); Women Artists Collaborate. Bulgaria -NY (2000), Dumbo Double Deuce (2001), Test of Time (2003), and more than forty personal shows of Russian American and international artists as a part of RACC's Artist Career Development Program. Dr. Khidekel’s book It’s the Real Thing: Soviet & Post-Soviet Sots Art & American Pop Art was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1998 in conjunction with an exhibition at Weisman Art Museum, and became a bestseller and a substantial contribution to the field of the Russian American comparative studies. In 1998 Dr. Khidekel founded the Russian American Cultural Center (RACC) in New York. In 2010 she founded the Lazar Khidekel Society, and in 2013 helped to establish the annual Lazar Khidekel Award for Young Architects.

Dr. Alla Rosenfeld has taught courses on Russian art and culture at Rutgers University for more than 15 years. From May 2017 to May 2018 she was Curator of Russian and European Art at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. From 2006 to 2009, she worked as Vice President and Senior Specialist in the Russian Paintings Department at Sotheby’s in New York. She was Curator of Russian Art at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University from 1992 to 2006, and also served as Director of the Zimmerli’s Russian Art Department. During Dr. Rosenfeld’s tenure at the Zimmerli, she organized many exhibitions of Russian art and was an editor and contributor to numerous publications, including Moscow Conceptualism in Context;  Art of the Baltics; Defining Russian Graphic Arts, 1898–1934; and From Gulag to Glasnost. Her independent curatorial projects include the traveling exhibition A World of Stage: Russian Designs for Theater, Opera, and Dance (2007), presented at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, and the Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo.

View the discussion RUSSIAN ÉMIGRÉ ARTISTS IN NEW YORK–THE REAL THING  via YouTube (video by Roman Khidekel)

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.