Vadim Gushchin

Biography

Gushchin was born in Novosibirsk in 1963. He is known primarily for his work, made in the genre of post-conceptual still life. In 1986, he graduated at the Moscow Energy Institute. He has been creating artistic photography since 1988. He lives and works in Moscow.

Russian art photographer Vadim Gushchin, who combines minimalist, conceptualist, and abstract strategies, is also entwined with two crucial aspects of Russian art that are inseparable from the nation’s identity and history. He photographs the most mundane objects from his (and our) daily life, each in series: books, envelopes, pills, packages, bread. Photographers from Stephen Shore to Gabriel Orozco have also photographed the least imposing elements in our homes— a plate, a pail, a table mat— but Gushchin manages to transpose the globally recognizable, inconsequential, disposable fragments of life into pristine artifacts of art, more beautiful in their spare perfection than reproductions of his work suggest. - Vicky Goldberg, writer, photography and art, Boston.

Vadim Gushchin 's elegant photographs pay homage to the dignity and richness everyday objects both in their very materials and in their roles as repositories of a collective culture. In the tradition of Russian supremacism his compositions are reduced to their most essential aspects of geometric form and color, however, his luxurious treatment of surface textures brings a warmth to the work that is completely his own. – Jennifer Norback, gallerist, Chicago.

When constructing a composition out of objects, Gushchin experiments with abstract colour relationships – in the gaping emptiness of the space of soaring, the heroes in his still-lifes are estranged from all earthly things, like the colour planes of Suprematist compositions. Gushchin’s photography reveals the fundamental duality of culture: the abstract nature of objects in it and the specificity of colour. – Konstantin Bokhorov, PhD, Moscow.

Vadim Gushchin balances on the thin edge of the object-objectless. The world of ideas – is the world of Malevich. The space of objects – is the space of consumerism. By putting objects from the supermarket into Malevich’s cosmos, Gushchin returns them to that place from whence they once came. To the primordial void. To the space of pure ideas.

This is an image that does not constrain us in any particular way, it does not overwhelm us with many details, but you see some very small thing and this little thing is capable of triggering in you large volumes of memory. That is, they are photographs that work with that cultural memory and that time which we envelop. – Mikhail Sidlin, Art-critic, Moscow.

Books and catalogues (selected)

Solo exhibitions

He has participated in art in exhibitions since 1991 and his first solo exhibition was held in 1995. He has more than 30 solo exhibitions including:

Group exhibitions

He has also participated in more than 50 group exhibitions in galleries and museums in Russia and abroad. His works have been presented in the international and Russian сonceptual group projects, such as:

Award

Collections

Gushchin's work is held in the following permanent public collections:

Private collections in Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, USA, South Korea, Belgium.

Video about artist and artist's interview