2016 Maya Brin Residents: Valera and Natasha Cherkashin
September 27, 2016
The Maya Brin Residency Program is pleased to welcome the Russian artists Valera and Natasha Cherkashin
The Maya Brin Residency Program welcomed the Russian artists Valera and Natasha Cherkashin who visited University of Maryland, College Park from October 16 to October 30, 2016.
The theme for this year residency was Art into Public Spaces. The Cherkashins participated in a one-day conference on October 28th. They also visited classes with lectures and conducted workshops on collages and installations.
About the artists
Valera and Natasha Cherkashin are artists who are working together for about 30 years. Starting with traditional materials - paintings, drawings, and photographs, they gradually switched to work with photographic images, installations, performances, and since 1999 - the digital images and videos. They are artists who have been exploring the cultures of the USSR, Russia, The United States, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Japan, China, France, Italy and other countries for over three decades, and as a result, have presented more than 150 individual exhibitions and more than 170 live art performances. Their work has been the subject of 70 television programs including CNN, Deutsche Welle, Russian TV. Their work has been the subject of over 250 publications, including Washington Post, Art+Auction, Art Forum, Stern Magazine.
Their works are displayed in prestigious museums and corporative collections, such as The Art Institute of Chicago; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; The Museum of Art Philadelphia; Houston Museum of Fine Arts; San Francisco MOMA; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Pushkin Art Museum in Moscow, Russia, and Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Cherkashins read lectures and conducted master classes in many universities around the world: Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Princeton University, Maryland University, New York University, School of Visual Arts, The Goldsmith University, London, PhotoEspana, Madrid, Tokyo University, University of Bologna, Italy.
Since 2005, Cherkashins are working on a project "Global Underground". This is a long-term multimedia project that includes works and video installations of subway station in 33 countries.
Cherkashins work with deeply rooted social archetypes - universal symbols of human existence. They are interested in the presence and development of the eternal archetypes of human civilization in the present, in actual life. Recently, their attention is pointed on the apocalyptic issues - the fate of mankind, burdened with knowledge of tragedies and catastrophes.
