This weekend is your last chance to experience a slice of the New York art scene in Moscow. The Triumph Gallery’s exhibition Artists/Assistants, which closes this Sunday, features the work of 24 American artists who are current or past assistants to the internationally renowned artist, Robert Longo.
The exhibition occupies two floors of the Triumph Gallery and includes a short video of interviews with Robert Longo, who has been a key supporter of this exhibition. Over forty works are on display in a variety of media, styles and subjects. While the individuality of each artwork is striking, curator Viktoria Dushkina suggests that there might be a “group sensibility” and sees the artists within a kind of “alternative family tree.”
“This exhibition not only reveals the individual talent of this generation of artists,” Dushkina told The Moscow Times. “It is an opportunity to educate visitors on how the art world works in the United States, where the cost of art school can be prohibitively high. Robert Longo, mindful of the increasing financial difficulties young artists face, sought not only to employ assistants but, in his own words, “to create an atmosphere where they’re paid really well, where they have enough time to do their own work, and that I can help them with what they’re doing.”
Artists/Assistants might seem like a simple exhibition, but it actually tells a broader story about art, creativity and the contemporary art world. It gives a glimpse behind the scenes at the network of people working together to produce respected and high-quality art. It is fitting that Dushkina, when asked what was most challenging about curating this exhibition, said that it was the logistics of bringing the artwork to one place.
Perhaps most important of all — all the works are available for purchase. Longo himself regrets not buying enough work by artists in his generation. Don’t make his mistake.
Triumph Gallery. 3/8 Ulitsa Ilyinka, Bldg. 5. Metro Ploshchad Revolyutsii. Triumph-gallery.ru.
