Georgy (Gosha) Ostretsov is a famous Russian artist and one of the brightest representatives of Moscow avant-garde artistic life of the eighties. He practically founded the genre of man-style in Russia, and announced a fashion and style as the new language of contemporary art. Ostretsov’s work heavily references comic books; hero and villain are crystal clear and the struggle between humanity and a ruling government are evident.
Ostretsov was born in Mosow in 1967. He graduated from the School of Theatre Design at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1984 and began to work as an artist, showing his work at numerous exhibitions. In 1988 he moved to Paris, where he lived and worked for ten years, including a three-year period as artist and designer at Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.
The artist manages to preserve the provocative ambiguity of his whole project and to remain in an invulnerable position of independent social criticism, invariably quick witted and precise. The large canvases and installations are executed in the aesthetics of comics, mixed, as it were, with the accidental intrusion of the street, which spoils the totalitarian message with its colorful blotches and dirt. Ostertsov splatters bright colored graffiti across the picture plane creating his own style suggestive of techno folk art. His images of the destruction of capitalists and greedy authoritarian systems of control suggest a redistribution of energy and power. The artist doesn’t treat Fascism, Stalinism or Capitalism, as implicit ‘enemies’ but regards any system of government that seeks to progressively tailor society as such. The power of his images lies in his universal message and mission.
Gosha now lives and works in Moscow.
Year | Exhibition Title | Gallery/Museum | Solo/Group |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | Gaiety Is The Most Outstanding Feature Of The Soviet Union | Saatchi Gallery, London | Group |
2011 | Russian Landscape | Marat & Julia Guelman Gallery, Moscow | Group |
2010 | Heavy Patients, | Rabouan Mousson Gallery | Solo |
2010 | Love for Electricity | TM Project Gallery, Geneve | Group |
2009 | Apocalypse | Marat Guelman Gallery, Moscow | Solo |
2009 | Art Moscow | Triumph Gallery | Solo |
2009 | Banality and Eternity | Triumph Gallery | Solo |
2009 | Gosha for Kids | Triumph Gallery | Solo |
2009 | The Adventures of Robin Hood | Paradise Row, London | Solo |
2009 | Another Mythology | National Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow | Group |
2009 | Invasion:Evasion, | Baibakov projects, Moscow | Group |
2008 | Dead Souls | Triumph Gallery | Solo |
2008 | Moloko-SOS | Ravenscourt Galleries, Moscow | Solo |
2008 | Moscow photo biennial | Moscow museum of contemporary art, Moscow | Group |
2008 | Laughterlife | Diehl + Gallery One, Moscow | Group |
2008 | (Paradise Row), | Zoo Art Fair London | Group |
2008 | Domestic Appliances | Flowers East, London | Group |
2008 | Laughterlife | Paradise Row, London | Group |
2008 | Fast Art 24 | Winzavod, Moscow | Group |
2008 | Russian Roulette | Museum Wiesbaden | Group |
2008 | Moscow Photo Biennial | Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art | Group |
2007 | Under repair | Moscow museum of contemporary art, Moscow | Solo |
2007 | Salon Beaute | Rabouan-Moussion Gallery, Paris | Solo |
2007 | Rich-Bitch | One Work Gallery, Moscow | Solo |
2007 | Morg (Moscow Organisation)' | Central House of Artists, Moscow | Solo |
2007 | Group exhibition with G.Litichevskij *Austrian story* | Resanita center of contemporary art. Graz, Austria. | Group |
2007 | Salon Beaute | Rabouan-Moussion gallery, Paris Under repair. Moscow museum of contemporary art, Moscow. | Group |
2007 | 2nd Moscow Biennial Exhibition of Modern Art | Sots-Art, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. | Group |
2007 | 2nd Moscow Biennial Exhibition of Modern Art | Artist`s diary, Central House of Artists, Moscow. | Group |
2006 | Cinemarathon curator project | Marat Guelman Gallery, Moscow. | Group |
2006 | Amateurs | Marres Art-Center, Maastricht, Netherlands. | Group |
2006 | Group exhibition with Benjamin Barthel and Julie Sainton (Paris)Spear-Hand | National center of photography of Russian Federation, St. Petersburg. | Group |
2005 | Lawlessness | Marat Guelman Gallery, Moscow | Solo |
2005 | Russia-2 | Central House of Artists, Moscow. | Group |
2005 | 1st Moscow Biennial Exhibition of Modern Art | Gender Passions Museum of Modern Art, Moscow. | Group |
2005 | Group project *Front: wechsel* | Stift Vorau, Austria. | Group |
2005 | Participation in a group exhibition within the 1st Moscow Biennial Exhibition of Modern Art | Soobshchniki (Partners), Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. 2005, George&George exhibition *In process*, paintings, video State Center of Modern Art, Moscow. | Group |
2005 | 8-th Biennale of graphics of the Baltic countries | Koenigsberg | Group |
2004 | Performance, The Ceremony of Granting the New Government’s Order "Silver Badge of Honour" to the Best People of the Russia Federation | S.Art Gallery, Moscow. | Solo |
2004 | Eat the Halfwit: wall mural in the Tretyakov Gallery at Krymsky Val | Modern Trends Departmemt,Hall of Actual Art. | Solo |
2004 | Controlled Democracy | White Space Gallery. London. | Group |
2004 | Moscow-Warsaw | Modern Art Center, Ujazd Castle,Warsaw. | Group |
2003 | New Countdown: Digital Russia with Sony | Project The New Government | Group |
2003 | Against Global Net | The Central House of Artists at Krymsky Val, Moscow | Group |
2002 | Vandals and Generals of the New Government | Marat Guelman Gallery, Moscow | Solo |
2002 | Moscow Photo Biennial: Project Bulimia | Photo Centre at Gogolevsky Boulevard, Moscow. | Group |
2002 | Reconstruction Cetinje biennial | Projects Rubber Tower, Lastomer (Pinniped), Shooting Gallery. Cetinje, Montenegro. | Group |
2001 | Contemporary Art in a Traditional Museum festival organised by the Ford Foundation Antarctic Eden one-man project | Arctic and Antarctic Museum, St.Petersburg | Solo |
2000 | New Government one-man exhibition | Marat Guelman Gallery, Moscow. | Solo |
2000 | Visitor one-man exhibition | Marble Palace (Branch of the State Russian Museum), St. Petersburg. | Solo |
1993 | Contemporary Art Biennial | Istanbul, Turkey | Group |