Galerie Blue Square : galerie d'art russe contemporaine - contemporary russian art gallery - Paris

Valera and Natasha Cherkashin are established Moscow artists who have been working together since the early 1990s. Since the 1960s and the first conceptual acts of Valera were documented in his native Ukraine, performance and photography have been the media of expression. The artists are recognized for their photography and video, performances and installations throughout Russia, the United States and Europe. Major museums and institutions worldwide collect their works.

Since 1999, the Cherkashins have been working with digital photography and video. In 2005 they began work on their present project, Global Underground, which takes its first images from the New York City subway. A virtual subway is created which makes stops around the world from Moscow, New York, Stockholm, Beijing, London, Paris, Berlin and Tokyo. Today’s unique digitally produced photographs and video projects document the similarities and differences found in underground rail transport systems around the world. The resultant images reflect the complexity and luminosity that draw the viewer into a virtual time and space. The combined evolution of the Cherkashin’s work and the technical advances in photography create a new order of transformation.

Valera was born in 1948 in Kharkhov, Ukraine and began livng and working in Moscow in 1980. Natasha comes from a family of diplomats and was born in 1958 in Syria. The artists have participated in more than 80 individual exhibits and over 40 performances. Their work has been the subject of 30 television programs and over 250 publications.


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1962
First art happenings

1968
Began making drawings and paintings.

1978
First exhibition in Kharkov together with Boris Mikhailov and Vladimir Klim.

1982
First exhibition in Moscow

1992
Developed conceptual museum "The Cherkashin Metropolitan Museum".

1993
Awarded grant from the Foundation of Social Innovations, USA, "New Leaders of Russia".

1994
Began work on the theme of "Travel as Art".

1995
Began work on the theme of "Mirages of Empires".

1997
Began work on the theme of "Favorite Portraits of People in the World".

1999
Received a four-month grant from Japan Foundation to live and work in Japan.

1999
The Cherkashins begin to work with digital production with the assistance of MFA Photography and Related Media Department of the School of Visual Arts, located in New York City.

2003
Received an award as from Creative Magazine and The Union of Journalists.

2005
Began work on "Global Underground" project.

2009
Valera & Natasha Cherkashin, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich

2008
Global Underground, Galerie Blue Square, Paris

Metro in Art & Art in Metro, Project Global Underground, Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Zurab Gallery).

2006
Glaz Gallery, Moscow House of Photography, The Night with a Pioneer Worker, Moscow

2005
XV International Festival "Month of Photography in Bratislava," Slovakia

Great Neck Arts Center, Futurism & Nostalgia, New York, USA; Gallery of Martha Schneider, Chicago, IL, USA

Union of Photo Artists, Real and Unreal New York, Moscow

2004
Municipal Art Center, Sport in Arts. Aphrodites of Russia, Athens, Greece (Stella Art Gallery).

2003
Indian Cultural Center, Fountain of Friendship, Moscow

2002
Moscow, Putin's Era. Columbia University, New York, USA 

Favorite Portraits of People in the World. Fleet Bank, Empire State Building. New York. USA

From USSR to Russia. Dickinson College, PA, USA

Supremacist Meditation.  Intersection, Kara Kurum, Mongolia

Mirages of Empires. State Russian Museum. St. Petersburg (catalog)

2001
Empires. Details. Municipal Art Gallery Phoenix, Moscow

Mirages of Empires. Russian American Cultural Center, New York

2000
From USSR to Russia. International Center of Photography, Shadai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. 

"Empires": Russia Past and Present. Together with Bill Wright and Steve Yates. Irving Arts Center, Dallas, TX, USA

Mirages of Empires. PhotoEspana 2000, Caja Madrid, Madrid, Spain. (catalog)

1999
Goodbye Favorite European Portraits: Hello Euro. World Bank Headquarters Atrium Pool, Washington, DC

Presentation. International House of Japan, Tokyo, Japan.

1998
Goodbye Favorite Portraits of European People. Municipal Art Gallery Phoenix, Moscow

The End of the Epoch. Installation. The World Bank, Washington DC     

Russia/America: Mirages of Empires. Chevy Chase Art Center, Washington DC

Favorite Portraits of People in the World. Citibank, Washington DC

Mirages of Empires. Dickinson College, PA

1997
USSR Atlantis. Swimming pool. University of Maryland.

The End of the Epoch. Kunstverein Rosenheim. Germany. (catalog)

Moscow Washington. Carnegie Moscow Center. Moscow

The Mystery Play of Berlin. The Goethe Institute. Moscow

1996
Moscow, the End of the Epoch. The Ford Foundation. Moscow

Press and Art. The German Embassy in Moscow

Mirages of Empire. The Russian House Berlin

Memorial to Memorial. Russian Cultural Center, Budapest

German Atlantis. Underwater exhibition. Olympia Stadium. Berlin

Russians and Americans Brothers Forever. Together with Steve Yates. Municipal A 3 Gallery. Moscow (catalog)

1995
Travel as Art.  Under and Above.  Municipal Art Center 'Rama Art".  Moscow

1994
Moscow's Red Square in Santa Fe. Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM (catalog)

The Silver Century.  Central House of Writers. Moscow

1993
Under Cover. IBM Office, Moscow

The Cherkashin Metropolitan Museum and Collection of Sotsrealism. Kremlin, Palace of Congresses.

1992
Presentation of The Cherkashin Metropolitan Museum. A-3 Gallery, Moscow (catalog)

Excavations and Reconstruction of the Ancient World, Middle of the Twentieth Century.  Museum of Paleontology. Moscow

1991
The End of the Epoch, the 90s, Library of Foreign Literature. Moscow 

Funeral of the Epoch, On the grounds of the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

1986
Branch of the Academy of Science in Noginsk. Chernogolovka.      

1985
The Maltese Embassy. Moscow

1984
The Museum of Architecture. Moscow

1983
"Pravda" Publishing House.  Moscow

1982
Lithographic Studio of the Moscow Union of Artists.  Moscow 

2006
From Analog to digital Photography. 7 years of Photographer.ru. Yakut Gallery, Moscow

Art Moscow 2006. Partner Gallery.

ARCO Madrid. Stella Art Gallery

Vienna's Fair. Austria, Vienna. Stella Art Gallery.

Photo Biennale 2006, Central House of Artists, Moscow

Alternative Art of 60-90's. Central House of Artists, Moscow

2003
IDEA Photographic: After Modernism. Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2002
Moscow Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. Museum of Russian Art. Ramad-gan, Israel (catalog)

2001
Red Square in Photographs. State Historical Museum, Moscow

Photography Saves the World. Museum of Decorative Art, Moscow

2000
Moscow in the period 1920-2000. Moscow's Museum of Contemporary arts. (catalog).

1999
Soviet & Post Soviet Sots Art & American Pop Art. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis MN  (catalog)

The XX Century reflected in Covers. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

1998
Russian Constructivist Roots: Present Concerns. University of Maryland, University of New Hampshire; Dickinson College, The World Bank Headquarters, Washington DC (catalog)

1997
From Rodchenko to our days. Museum of Photographic Collections, Moscow

1996
New Russian Art, Works on Paper from Kolodzei collection. Georgetown University, Washington DC

Die Grosse Zurcher Ausstellung. Kunsthaus Oerlikon, Zurich

Contemporary Russian Art. Collection of Lis Junstrup and Jens Gregersen. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

1995
New Acquisitions. Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

Collection of Olga Hirshhorn. Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC

1994
New Photoart from Russia. Karlsruhe, Frankfurt, Hanover, Dusseldorf, Herten. Germany

4+4 Late Modern. Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

1993
Art of Contemporary Photography. Central House of Artists, Moscow 

Underground Paradise, World Financial Center.  New York

1992
Europe-America 500. Kolodzei Art Foundation, Seattle

Malevich Center. Museum of Paleontology, Moscow 

To Malevich, Karenina Gallery.  Vienna (catalog)

Gala-Portrait, Municipal A-3 Gallery.  Moscow

1991
Modern Russian Art.  London.

Artists developing the style of Malevich, Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow

1990
Moscow in Cambridge. Cambridge, Great Britain. 

Traditions of Russian Paintings. Museum of Reconstruction, Moscow

Exhibition of Soviet Erotic Art. Kashirka Exhibition Hall. Moscow

1989
Photo '89. 150 Years of Photography. Manezh. Moscow

One Hundred Artists from the Collection of T. and N. Kolodzei, Central Museum.  Tashkent.

First All Union Photo Festival. Manezh. Moscow

1988
The House of Cinematography.  Moscow

Exhibition of Paintings "Spring-87", Soiuzvneshtrans, Moscow

1986
Stankovaya Graphica on Malaya Gruzinskaya.  Moscow

1984
Photo Objective and Life. Manezh. Moscow

1983
Third All-Russian exhibition.  Manezh.  St. Petersburg

1982
Exhibition of Moscow Art. The Central House of Artists. Moscow

1981
Sterligov's Group. Sterligov's Studio.  St. Petersburg

1978
Student's Club of KAI. Together with Boris Mikhailov Vladimir Klim. Kharkov, Ukraine

Art Institute of Chicago

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Houston Museum of Fine Arts

Santa Fe Museum of Fine Art

Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Jersey

Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Newseum, Washington, DC

The Library of Congress

New York Public Library

World Bank, Washington DC

State Russian Museum

Checkpoint Charlie Museum, Berlin

International Center of Photography, Tokyo

"Their earlier work was crowded, rough and handmade, infused with the gestural quality of a Robert Rauschenberg silkscreen. Today they work primarily with digital imagery and computers to manipulate and combine their images. Smudgy photos, paste, paint and ink on photo paper and newsprint, have given way to sensuous and fluid three dimensional spaces - still packed densely with imagery - printed digitally on shiny smooth metallic paper.".

Casper, Jim, Ballet and Sport photocollages by Natasha and Valera Cherkashin, 2006 Lens Culture and individual contributors, from the World Wide Web: http://www.lensculture.com/cherkashin.html

"While the Cherkashins do not rely on photomontage or any other single art form, they do combine the heroic subjects and values from the Soviet history, including its art. They excavate others ideas, symbols and styles from the history of the Russian avant-garde.".

Yates, Steve, Curator of Photography Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe., "Ideological Deconstruction/Cultural Reconstruction: The Anti-Modern Photographic installations of Valery and Natasha Cherkashin", Mirages of Empires, The State Russian Museum, 2002.

"For the Cherkashins, the city is a stage upon which a range of performances are enacted. Architecture and inhabitants are assimilated into each other; but the city as theater is not static.".

Earl, Edward W., International Center of Photography New York, "Shining Cities: The Work of Valera and Natasha Cherkashin", Futurism & Nostalgia, Great Neck Arts Center, Cherkashin Metropolitan Museum, 2005.