The Russian Association of the Worst Artists on Instagram
Image: @gry.gore via VK
17 February 2021
Text:
Paula Erizanu
Irreverent, hyper-local, and biting: the Russian Association of the Worst Artists’ Instagram account showcases art that doesn’t make it into museums and galleries.
Deeply political, the subjects featuring on @axyxyart range from the widespread police brutality seen during the recent pro-democracy protests in Russia and Belarus, to consumerism, religion, Russian rural and urban architecture, and scenes from everyday life — explored in paintings, drawings, illustrations, collages, and other art forms, with strong influences from pop culture, naive, and outsider art.
The account curator, Vadim Sobolev, says that he set up the account while he was working as a handyman at St Petersburg’s Museum of Modern Art. “Some may say that what I’m doing is rubbish, but I believe that I am engaged in a cultural phenomenon at the crossroads of journalism and art,” he explains. “Without this interaction, people will continue to pretend they are asleep. And I don’t like pretense.”
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