Paper Frontier, Art Hotel DOMINA, St. Petersburg, Russia
On 25 October 2022, the gallery at Art Hotel DOMINA in St. Petersburg opened Paper Frontier, an exhibition of large-format collages from the collection of Russian artist Vladimir Kordiukov. The works had not been shown publicly for almost twenty years, making the exhibition an opportunity to see an important period of the artist’s practice again.
The series draws on the history of collage that emerged in the early 20th century through the work of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Kordiukov’s compositions reflect an interest in Analytical Cubism, while developing its visual language through his own subjects and treatment of form. Everyday objects, musical instruments and the human figure are reduced to concise forms and brought together into compact compositions.
Musicians and studio still lifes appear throughout the series. Many of the works are built around a relationship between figures or between a person and an object. These encounters give the compositions a quiet narrative quality, while the simplified forms keep the image open to interpretation.
A distinctive feature of the series is Kordiukov’s treatment of the paper itself. He worked with materials of different density and texture, including compressed paper, music sheets, cardboard and tracing paper. The surface becomes part of the composition, while his precise handling of line is combined with a controlled use of colour and tone.
As part of the exhibition programme, Anna Galeeva, Kordiukov’s curator, gave a lecture on the artist’s life and work. The lecture provided visitors with an opportunity to learn more about the development of his artistic practice and the ideas behind the works presented in Paper Frontier.
The exhibition brought together a body of work created several decades earlier and returned it to public view in a contemporary setting. Paper Frontier offered a close look at Kordiukov’s approach to collage and his reinterpretation of early modernist traditions through his own visual language.
Paper Frontier in media
2022 DOMINA St. Petersburg — Paper Frontier. Official exhibition announcement for Vladimir Kordiukov’s large-format collage exhibition, opened on 25 October 2022 at the hotel gallery. LINK to the publication
2022 Antenna Daily — Paper Frontier: Exhibition of Avant-Garde Artist Vladimir Kordiukov Opens at Domina Hotel. Publication about the exhibition, its ten large-format collages and the accompanying programme of art meetings and lectures. LINK to the publication
2022 Where.ru — Paper Frontier. Exhibition announcement describing the presentation of Kordiukov’s large-format avant-garde collages at Art Hotel Domina St. Petersburg. LINK to the publication
2022 Hotel.Report — Five Dimensions at Domina St. Petersburg. Feature on the hotel that specifically mentions Paper Frontier by Vladimir Kordiukov as the exhibition occupying the hotel’s corridor gallery. LINK to the publication
2022 Rambler / Antenna Daily — Five Dimensions at Domina St. Petersburg. Republication of the Hotel.Report feature, with a direct mention of the ongoing Paper Frontier exhibition by Vladimir Kordiukov at the hotel. LINK to the publication
2022 Galeeva Events — Exhibition of Vladimir Kordiukov’s Collages. Event announcement for the opening of Paper Frontier at the Domina hotel on 25 October 2022, describing the project as a presentation of ten large-format collages created between 1996 and 1999. LINK to the event
2022 Antenna Daily — Paper Frontier. The exhibition programme included the 19 November lecture 10 Names of Russian Avant-Garde and the exhibition tour, as well as the 5 and 12 November art mediations with curator Anna Galeeva. LINK to the publication