NYAB Event - Nikolay Bakharev “The People of Town N”

Nikolay Bakharev “The People of Town N”

Julie Saul Gallery

This event has ended.

Julie Saul Gallery presents its second solo exhibition of Siberian, self-taught photographer Nikolay Bakharev, who in recent years has gained international attention. His exposure in the 2012 Ostolgia show organized by New Museum curator Massimiliano Gioni led to a solo show at the 2013 Venice Biennale. Our exhibition will include a mix of images made in and out of doors in his hometown of Novokuznetsk, many not previously published or exhibited. The show coincides with Bakharev’s Deutsche Börse nomination and exhibition at the Photographer’s Gallery in London that will travel to the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt this summer. The prize will be announced on May 28th.

Bakharev began photographing during the Soviet era when it was illegal to photograph or exhibit nudes. His ambiguous images of Russian bathers on public beaches, and individuals and groups photographed in private homes, play on the tension between acceptable and unacceptable imagery. As Karen Rosenberg said in her 2013 New York Times review – they are “unexpectedly linked by the game spirit and conspiratorial demeanor of his subjects.”

Bakharev rarely photographs his subjects alone. He creates elaborate compositions of couples and groups in poses that feel natural and staged, solemn and humorous. Several of the images in the show represent fathers and sons, and brothers together, images with strong psychological overtones. While he does not include himself in the photographs, his presence can be felt strongly. In the “private” images he also inserts all kinds of iconographic references that adds to the intimacy of his vision. By working with a traditional square format, and in black and white, the work has a timeless and somewhat nostalgic quality.

Bakharev’s work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Southeast Museum of Photography, The Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and the Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, among others. We are Bakharev’s exclusive dealer in the United States.