Freaking Fabulous | Blazar Art Fair |
13 – 18 Sep 2022

About
©Copyright Fabula Gallery | by Rattlesnake Group Limited
Curators: Elena Fadeeva, Alina Chichikova
Dates: 13 - 18 Sep 2022
Artists: Stasia Grishina
Misha Gudwin
Anna Taganzeva-Kobzeva
Date:

January 26, 2023

Category:

Freaking Fabulous | Blazar Art Fair |
13 – 18 Sep 2022

Fābula gallery is pleased to announce its debut at the Blazar Young Contemporary Art Fair with the group project Freaking Fabulous. The booth features works by Stasia Grishina, Misha Gudwin and Anna Taganzeva-Kobzeva.

In her practice, Stasia Grishina often refers to the theme of pets. The artist contrasts their sincerity, expressed in a spectrum of manifestations from open aggression to unconditional devotion with the cynicism of rational human logic. The works from the triptych The Experience Was Sad are inspired by online reviews of various dog breeds found by the artist. The central work is devoted to the tragic and absurd history of a hunting dog whose owners didn’t realise the specifics of the breed. “Man’s best friend’ turned out to be inconvenient for everyone, and eventually, the dog was poisoned. The work Good Boy from the series “All Dogs Go to Heaven” was shown for the first time as part of an exhibition of the same name at the Issmag Gallery in 2021. The personage depicted is the main character of the satirical sitcom “Mr. Pickles” – a demonic dog of good-natured appearance.

Misha Gudwin is a street artist from Voronezh, currently living and working in Moscow. In his artistic practice, he references the aesthetics of various online communities. Misha works with diverse media: his practice includes murals, installations, sculpture, and graphics. His works are often inspired by mundane objects and their juxtaposition with the visual symbols of Internet subcultures. The graphic series “RAP” exhibited at our booth was created specifically for Blazar 2022. It was inspired by mobile phone screensavers which were popular in the early 2000s: the absurd superimposition of meanings in these digital collages, transmitted via IR, carried a clear message about the status and interests of their owner. The hypertrophied masculinity in the works from this series intersects with refined femininity and infantilism intertwined in the details. The sculptural composition Diary was also created specifically for the fair in collaboration with the ceramic artist from Voronezh, Yulia Skromnaya.

Anna Taganzeva-Kobzeva’s visual language is a synthesis of elements borrowed from hieroglyphic and runic writing with abstract and occult imagery. She often steps beyond the boundaries of one dimension, capturing and enchanting the space around. Turning to the aesthetics of horror and the mystical, she seeks to reflect the meta-space, sublime and inhuman. The work Sweet Fog of Flowers was first presented at the exhibition “Field of Flowers”, which took place in our gallery in March 2021. Images of flowers and butterflies often appear in Anna’s works, symbolizing the duality of the beautiful and the sublime, the beginning and the end, life and death.

About the artists:

Stasia Grishina

Stasia started her contemporary art practice in 2019. Before that she studied Scenography and Theatre Technology at Moscow Art Theatre School, and later she continued her education at the Rodchenko Art School under the guidance of Sergei Bratkov. Stasia is a participant of group projects in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 2021, she presented her solo exhibition “All Dogs Go to Heaven” at the Issmag Gallery, Moscow and “PIGMENT gray on the second floor” at the 9b Gallery, Nizhny Novgorod. Stasia works with sculpture, photography, objects, painting. She addresses problems such as the influence of society on the formation of personality, socio-political processes, consumer culture and manifestations of violence.

Misha Gudwin

Extracting the digital symbolism from the virtual into the physical realm, Misha Gudwin studies the phenomenon of digital dualism, analysing the links between these two worlds. In his works Misha Gudwin ‘bonds’ contemporaneity – the world we live in with the features of both a virtual and a physical reality. His technique resembles collage: various symbols overlapping create a visual storybook of the 2000s. Critical analysis of this fading cultural code helps us to better understand and re-evaluate the reality we live in.

Anna Taganzeva-Kobzeva

Anna is a multimedia artist from St. Petersburg. She is currently continuing her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna at the Faculty of Bildende Kunst. Her previous education includes degrees from St. Petersburg State University and ICA Moscow. Anna is laureate of the Garage Digital Grant Program 2021/2022. In Anna’s works, one can often find mythological and occult motifs rethought through the prism of artificial intelligence, digital forms of control, digitalization and, as a result, a change in the social structure of society and a shift in anthropocentrism. It is important for her to combine the archaic and technogenic environment as temporary shifts and the deconstruction of the very concept of time within the works. In 2021, Anna’s works were presented at solo exhibitions in the DAIPYAT gallery in Voronezh, as well as in the Fābula gallery, Moscow. She is also a co-founder of an artist-run gallery DEVYATNADTSAT’.