Alexey Titarenko graduated from the Department of Cinematic and Photographic Art at Leningrad's Institute of Culture in 1983. He began taking photographs at the beginning of the 1970s, and in 1978 became a member of the well-known Leningrad photographic club Zerkalo, where he had his first ... Read more
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Publications
Biography
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Personal Exhibitions
2010
"Alexey Titarenko: Saint Petersburg in Four Movements," Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York
2008
“Unfulfilled Time,” Curated by Gabriel Bauret, Thessaloniki Photo Biennale, April – May, Greece
“Alexey Titarenko: Venice,” Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York
“Unfulfilled Time,” Curated by Gabriel Bauret, Thessaloniki Photo Biennale, April – May, Greece
“Alexey Titarenko: Venice,” Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York
2007
“Alexey Titarneko Photographs,” Na Solyanke Gallery, Moscow, Russia
“City of Shadows,” Sirijus Arts Center, Cobh, County Cork, Ireland
“Alexey Titarenko: Havana Sketches”, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2006
“Northern Light: Pentti Sammalahtti‐Alexey Titarenko”, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY, USA
“St. Petersburg – Shadows into Light,” Wall Space, Seatte, USA
2005
“Alexey Titarenko”, Artotheque, Vitre, France
“Sogni di Luce”, Galleria Santa Cecilia, Rome, Italy
2004
ALEXEY TITARENKO, a Retrospective Exhibition , Centre Culturel Andre Malraux, Nancy, France
“Alexey Titarenko”, St. Die, France
“Alexey Titarenko”, White Square Gallery, Moscow, Russia
“Alexey Titarenko: Time Standing Still”, Nailya Alexander Gallery, NYC
“Alexey Titarenko: Venice ‐ Paris”, Apex Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles
“St. Petersburg: City of Water and City of Shadows”, FotoFest, Houston, TX 2003
“City of Shadows: Photographs of Petersburg by Alexey Titarenko”, Middelbury College Museum of Art, Middelbury, Vermont
“Alexey Titarenko: St. Petersburg”, Candace Perich Gallery, Katonnah, NY
“Four Movements of St. Petersburg”, SpazioFoto Credito Artigiano, Florence, Italy
“Alexey Titarenko: Black and White Magic of St. Petersburg’, Grimaldis Gallery,
in the framework of “Vivat! St. Petersburg Festival”, Baltimore, MD
“Saint Petersbourg: La cite des ombres”, Camera Obscura Gallery, Paris, France
2002
“City of Shadows”, Photo‐Eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
"Alexey Titarenko: Four Movements of St. Petersburg", Reattu Museum, Arles International Photography Festival, France
"Time Regained: Fragments from St. Petersburg series", Manezh Central
Exhibition Hall, Moscow, Russia
2001
"City of Shadows", International Art Biennial, Apex Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2000
"Le temps inachevé", Nei Liicht gallery, Luxemburg.
"Magician of St. Petersburg", Gary Edwards Gallery, Washington, D.C.
"St. Petersburg", Le Bellevue Exhibition Hall, International Festival of Photography "Biarritz Terre d’Images", Biarritz, France
"Alexey Titarenko", Retrospective Exhibition, Galerie Municipale du Chateau d’eau, Festival Garonne, Toulouse, France
"Nomenklatura of Signes” projection in the framework of the festival "Keep the Light on... ", Centre national de l’audiovisuel, Clervaux Castle,
Luxembourg ; International Photography Festival in Biarritz, France
1999
"Ville des ombres. La magie noire et blanche de St. Petersbourg", Musée de Nice, Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice, France; Soros Center for Contemporary Art/Open Society Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia
1998
"Errance", The Sixth International Festival "Histoire de voir 98. Mois de la photographie et de l’image", Museum Pierre Noel, Saint‐Die, France
"Alexey Titarenko: Magic of St. Petersburg", Month of Photography, Bratislava, Slovakia
1997
"Die schwarze und weisse Magie von St. Petersburg", Neuen Rathaus, Ingelheim, Germany
1996
"Black and White Magic of St Petersburg", Month of European Culture in St. Petersburg, The Grand Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society, St. Petersburg
1994
"City of Shadows", Gallery‐21, St Petersburg, Russia
1993
"Nomenklatura of Signs", in the framework of Photopostcriptum project, State Russian museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
1989
"Nomenklatura of Signs", Ligovka‐ 99 Exhibition Hall, Leningrad, USSR
"Visages de Leningrad", Drouart Gallery, Paris, France
1988
Retrospective Exhibition, Municipal Cultural Center, Gdyn, Poland
1987
"Fragments of the Forest", Mariynsky Theatre, Leningrad, USSR
1983, 1986, 1988
Nevsky Prospekt 90, Leningrad, USSR
1978
Kirov Palace of Culture, Leningrad, USSR
Group Exhibitions
2009
RUSSIE(S), La collection s'expose, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Innovation, AIPAD Photography Show, Park Ave Armory, New York
2007
“Vital signs: Place” George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA
"DE L’EUROPE.Photographies, essais, histoires", Centre National Audiovisuel de Luxembourg, Luxembourg
« Photographier la ville » Collection of ‘Galerie du Château d' Eau’ Toulouse, Espace Saint‐Jean de Melun, France
2006
“Through the Lens II”, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, USA
2005
“Et c’est aisi que les hommes vivent,” French Senate, Paris, France
From Recent Acquisitions, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
2003
“Concealed Identity”, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“Time Standing Still: St. Petersburg Photographs”, Georgetown University Art Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA
1999‐2003
International photographic print expositions: Paris‐Photo; Photo San Francisco; Photo Los Angeles; the Photography Show in New York
1999
"Neva/Mississippi. Contemporary Russian photography", pARTs Photographic Arts, Minneapolis, USA
"Without the Wall: Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall", Marble Palace, the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
"From Icons to Avant‐garde", State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg;
“Drei Zeitebenen: St.Petersburg in Fotografien”, Kulturhaus Osterfelt, Pforzheim, Germany
1998
"Petersburg‐97", Contemporary Art of St. Petersburg, Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg, Russia
"Trace of a Shadow: Dramatic Themes of St. Petersburg Photography at the End of the 20th Century”, Okhta Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg, Russia
"The Anatomy of Contemporary Art", Art Collegium Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia
"Daniil Harms Festival", Museum of History in St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia
"Aufbruch ‐Die neue russische Fotografie”, Internationalen Photoszene, Colonge, Germany; BAYER AG, Leverkusen, Germany
St Petersburg Biennale "Autumn Marathon", Art Collegium Gallery , St. Petersburg
"Exhibition of New Acquisitions 1988‐98", the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
"Vous avez dit, famille", Month of photography, Paris, France
"Contemporary photography of East Europe", Stadtgalerie, Horn, Austria
1997
"Northern dream: CD‐ROM Photo‐Show", in the framework of the 'Salute St. Petersburg' Festival, the World Financial Center, New York, USA
'The First Five Years: Painting, Graphic Art, Photography and Installations", the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
"Petersburg‐96", Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg, Russia
"Progress: From Leningrad to St. Petersburg", Dostoevsky Museum, St. Petersburg
Gary Edwards Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA
Russian Embassy, Washington, D.C., USA
1996‐1997
"Chronicles of change", Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL, USA; Washington Center for Photography, Washington, D. C., USA
1996
"Russian Photographers: Renewal and Metamorphoses from the End of the Soviet
Era to the 1990s", The MIT Museum, Boston, USA
"Photo‐96", The Harbor, St Petersburg, Russia
"Photoarchaeology ", Month of Photography in Moscow, Kashirka Exhibition Hall, Moscow, Russia
"The 4th St Petersburg Biennale of Contemporary Art", Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, St Petersburg, Russia
1995
"New Soviet photography", Karlsruhe Art Museum, Germany (followed by a two‐year tour of German cities)
"Conceptual photography from St Petersburg", Ifa Gallerie, Berlin
"Self‐identification", National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway;
The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
"Photoarchaeology", Month of Photography, Bratislava, Slovakia
1994
"Self‐identification", Stadtgalerie in Sophienhof, Kiel, Germany
1992
"Tramplin pour les images", French National Centre of Photography, Tokyo
Palace, Paris, France
"Les experiences photographiques Russes”, Grand Ecran, Month of Photography, Paris, France
1990
"Photostroyka: New Soviet Photography", Burden Gallery; Aperture Foundation, New York (followed by a three‐year tour of cities throughout the USA)
1989
Ligovka group exhibition, Leningrad Cinema, Leningrad, USSR
1987
The Second National Exhibition "Photo Art of Russia", Exhibition Pavilion of National Economic Achievements, Moscow, USSR
"Photo‐art of Leningrad", Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, Leningrad, USSR
1986‐1988
Took part in photographic festivals organized by the Baltic States and Leningrad: Valga‐86, Valga, Estonia; Uzvara‐87, Uzvara, Latvia; Bauska‐88, Bauska, Latvia
1979‐1989
Annual review exhibitions of Mirror Photographic Club, Kirov Palace of Culture, 1979; Karl Marx Palace of Culture from 1980, Leningrad, USSR
1978
Mirror Photographic Club Second exhibition, Kirov Palace of Culture, Leningrad, USSR
Artist Links
Quotes about the artist
"[T]he eye and memory are hypnotized by the supernatural tinges and substances, neither black-and-white nor color, but an intermediate zone that might symbolize the space separating the living from the dead... Remembrance and memory are the grand preoccupation of this attentive reader of Proust and Dostoyevsky. In this way, the shadows enlivening the setting are appropriate to a fragile construction."
Le Monde
"Which of the twenty shows at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles are the most important to see?... For those who have no fear of loyalty to black-and-white, and are eager to add nuances to the range: Titarenko... Immobile in the neoclassical lines of its buildings, this particular St. Petersburg is not the monumental "Venice of the North" of postcards, but a city without makeup, quotidian and yet specific, its character portrayed in the misty sketch of its stern facades: rows of windows, porches, alleys formed by a series of courtyards, slippery streets. A world of fog bred with snow, corroded by dusky shadows, broken by inexplicable shafts of sunlight, slowly comes to life. These places are not inhabited: they are haunted. The city shivers with the incessant flow of an army of shadows, a disembodied quivering of hands and legs devoid of torsos, revealing on the immobility of the living, lurking in the sepulchral darkness of winter or embedded in the coagulated clarity of a peculiar summer."
Liberation
"[I]n the purest tradition of documentary photography, Titarenko plucks fragments from daily life with no staging whatsoever. But the use of long exposures and the subtlety of his black-and-white cameos endow the reality he confronts with a metaphysical dimension, timeless and introspective."
Beux Arts Magazine
"In 'Untitled (Old Woman Sitting on Sidewalk)' (1999), the viewer comes face to face with a chilling reality in the form of a defeated soul. A woman sits, a note in her hand, looking quite still as a dark and looming sea of humanity passes her by. Time does seem to stand still, when one is faced with great loss or adversity, and this photograph captures this moment in a truly timeless fashion."
The New York Times
"Alexey Titarenko's intriguing photographs... instead of seizing an instant and
preserving it intact, they embrace a span of time, allowing it to pass and leave just a trace... In one especially poignant example from 1999, an older Russian woman in archetypal heavy coat, scarf and boots sits on the pavement, that seems to erode beneath her... The picture brings to mind Dorothea Lange's 'White Angel Bread Line' of 1932 in its stunning portrait of the singularity of suffering."
The Los Angeles Times
"The nuances of Titarenko's prints convey solitude and arrested motion, the blurred effect of long exposures and the camera’s intentional movement... The photographs are driven by an intense interest in the esthetics of the image."
Art in America
"Titarenko's prints are contemporary views of the city and its people... Throughout, however, there remains a certain gentility and romance, like late Impressionist painting of rain-soaked Paris."
The Houston Chronicle
"Alexey Titarenko's work evocatively captures a tumultuous decade in his native St. Petersburg…. [I]t is their contradictory mixture of vagueness and precision that makes [these images] exceptional."
The Irish Times