MARCH 3 – APRIL 3, 2011
ANGEL ORENSANZ. TWENTY YEARS OF CONCEPTUAL CONTRIBUTION IN RUSSIA.

It is so appropriate that the Museum of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg presents this exhibition at the opening of the Year of Spain in Russia and of Russia in Spain. It was in the early Spring of 1991 when Angel Orensanz, a Spanish born sculptor firmly rooted in New York, arrived in Moscow . Since then, no other Spanish contemporary artist has so consistently contributed his work to the current Russian scene. And the Angel Orensanz Foundation in New York palpitates permanently with up to date cultural creativity in all fields. No political, financial or ethnic interest mediates in this flow of art and culture. We just continue a cultural tradition of a hundred years between Lower Manhattan and Russia; from the days of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Sergei Eisenstein to Andrei Voznessensky and Ella Esipovich.

Tatiana Borodina, the curator of this show in St. Petersburg has built a strategy of presenting an intense concentration of the various moments and artistic disciplines of Angel Orensanz into a compelling symphony out from the twenty years of exhibitions, constructions and art interventions of Angel Orensanz, including musical pieces, video, digital media and sculptural assemblages. The interaction with the Russian media has been an intricate part of this presence through newspapers, institutional catalogues and TV, mostly the well documented contributions of Kanal Kultura and CBS. Scholars have followed Orensanz’s insertion into the Russian scene with essays and analysis. Texts of Alexander Borovsky, Nikolai Blagodatov and Andrei Vosnesensky join Michel Tapie, Pierre Restany, Moreno Galvan, Achille Bonito Oliva, Robert C. Morgan, Giralt Miracle, Fernandez Castro and many other writers and critics.

The St. Petersburg Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, is contributing this sweeping and refreshing overview with imports from Orensanz’s recent shows at the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, the Hermitage, the Repin Museum, the Pushkin in Moscow and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. Tatiana Borodina’s curatorship brings together sculptures shown at different museums with painting, drawing, video and installations. More than accumulation of pieces she has built an arresting view of the fields of Angel Orensanz’s work by sediments of meaning and their varied linguistic layers.

The exhibition opens this 3rd of March and extends to the 3rd of April; and it will open with a media presentation and a reception in tune with the prominence of the curatorial work of the Museum and the weight that the two countries, Russia and Spain vest in this exceptional cultural program.

Angel Orensanz was inducted as a member of the Russian Academy of Arts in 2009; after his exhibition at the Moma Moscow.

This exhibition comes accompanied by a series of movie broadcasts at Time Warner/MNN New York, and a collection of video works of Angel Orensanz from MoMa, New York.

The exhibit catalog can be viewed online and is available for download.

Links: The State Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, Spanish Embassy in Russia, Opening of the Year of Russia in Spain and the Year of Spain in Russia, Angel Orensanz, Angel Orensanz Center for Contemporary Art.
Angel Orensanz: 20 Years in Russia
MARCH 3 – APRIL 3, 2011
State Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, Saint Petersburg

PRESS CONFERENCE: March 3, 2011 at 2 PM

OPENING RECEPTION: March 3, 2011 at 3 PM

Catherine The Great Exhibit Hall
State Museum of Russian Academy of Arts
Saint Petersburg, Universitetskaya embankment, 17.
Phone: (812) 323-3578, (812) 323-6496