Igor Chelkovski

Igor Сhelkovski is a russian artist, sculptor, publisher of the famous magazine «А-Я» (A-Z).

He graduated from Moscow 1905 Memorial Arts School. In 1962-66 he worked as a restorer of frescoes and icons in the Moscow Kremlin and Novgorod. Since the beginning of the 1970s he has been engaged in sculpture. In 1976 he emigrated to Paris, where, together with Alexander Sidorov, he published the legendary magazine «А-Я» (A-Z) (1979-1986), which introduced the Soviet art underground to the West. The magazine published the texts of Boris Groys and Dmitry Prigov, the works of Eric Bulatov, Ivan Chuikov, Fyodor Semyonov-Amursky and many other nonconformist artists. For his publishing activities in 1985 Chelkovski was deprived of citizenship of the USSR.

The first solo exhibitions of Igor Shelkovski took place in the 1990s in Germany and France. In 2013-2014 (November-February), the big exhibition «The Permanent Change» was held by the Multimedia Art Museum of Moscow (MAMM), and in 2017-2018 (December 15-May 20) – a retrospective «City of Roads» in the State Tretyakov Gallery.

Igor Shelkovski’s works are held by the Pompidou Center, the Russian Museum (Saint Petersburg), the Tretyakov Gallery, the Ludwig Foundation Museum in Vienna, the Zimmerli Museum and other museums in the world.

Selected solo exhibitions
2020 – “Clear Contours”, Alina Pinsky Gallery, Moscow
2019 – “Igor Chelkovski. People” The donation of Alina and Dmitry Pinsky, New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
2018 – “Igor Chelkovski. Variety of Images”, Alina Pinsky Gallery, Moscow
2017 – “Igor Chelkovski. City of Roads”, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
2016 – ART4 Museum, Moscow
2014 – “Igor Chelkovski. Reflections on the Future”, Fine Art Gallery, Moscow
2013 – “Igor Chelkovski. The Constancy of Change”, MAMM, Moscow
2010 – “The Fictional House”. The State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
2009 – “Red, White, Black”, The State MAMM Museum, Moscow
2009 – Solo exhibition, Weiller Gallery, Paris, France
2009 – “Blue Skies”, Fine Art Gallery, Moscow
2006 – “Past Perfect”, Era Foundation for the Support of Visual Arts, Moscow
2006 – “Architectural projects, sculpture, painting”, Fine Art Gallery, Moscow
2002 – Weiler Gallery, Paris, France
2001 – Cassandra Gallery, Drobak, Norway
2001 – Karenina Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2000 – Le Scarabée Cultural Center, La Verriere, France
1997 – Cultural Center, Elancourt, France
1997 – Galerie Forum Lindentha, Cologne, Germany
1997 – Weiler Gallery, Paris, France
1995 – Gallery Oliver Schweden, Munich, Germany
1991 – Galerie Forum Lindentha, Cologne, Germany
1990 – Cassandra Gallery, Drobak, Norway
1969 – Hall of the Central House of Art Workers, Moscow

Main group exhibitions
2013 – “Russia XXI. Modern Russian Sculpture”, MAMM, Moscow
2012 – “Coordinates of the LXXV generation”. MAMM, Moscow
2011 – “Nails with their heads up”. Ark Gallery, Moscow
2010 – “City”, Open Gallery, Moscow
2010 – “The Masculine Beginning”, Open Gallery, Moscow
2009 – “Espace Nature”, Galerie Blue Square, Paris
2005 – “Russian Pop Art’, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
2004 – “New Arrivals”, MAMM, Moscow
2003 – “Moscow abstraction. The second half of the twentieth century”. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
2002 – “Abstraction in Russia. The twentieth century”. State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg
1999 – Transparency. Institut Cochin, Paris, France
1995 – “From Gulag to Glasnost”, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey, USA
1979 – “Twenty Years of Unofficial Art”, Bochum Museum, Germany
1978 – “Dissidents”, Museums of Lodi and Turin, Italy
1977 – May Salon, Paris, France
1977 – “New Soviet Art. Unofficial Prospective”, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1976 – Leonid Sokov’s Studio, Moscow