Alexey Titarenko
Nailya Alexander Gallery is pleased to present City of Hidden Lives, on view online Monday 1 March through Saturday 3 April. This unique online exhibition mingles the work of Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962, St. Petersburg) and Pentti Sammallahti (b. 1950, Helsinki) with verses by the Finnish poet Bo Carpelan (1926–2011) and the Paris-based poet, translator, editor, and zheng harpist Fiona Sze-Lorrain to explore the singular relationship between the photographer and the city, particularly during the season of winter.
City of Hidden Lives explores the pervasive feelings of solitude and deprivation that people have experienced during this pandemic winter and offers a space to share those feelings through photography and poetry. While both Titarenko and Sammallahti are renowned for their work in cities and regions around the world, from Venice and Havana to far-flung regions of Asia and Africa, both have long been anchored in the cities where they were born and currently live and work. This exhibition includes Titarenko’s photographs of his native St. Petersburg in the 1990s, as well as his recent photographs of New York, where he has resided for almost fifteen years; and Sammallahti’s images of his native Helsinki, a subject to which he has always returned throughout his fifty-year career. In their work, the city is often a silent, solitary place: both birds and people wander alone or in small groups, dwarfed by buildings, trees, and waterways, against a backdrop of ice and snow. Yet in the midst of this quietude and desolation is a sense of serenity, and even intimacy; as Carpelan writes, “All’s silence, / all in balance.”
This sensation is achieved not only due to Titarenko’s and Sammallahti’s deeply felt love for their cities but also through each artist’s unparalleled gelatin silver printing process. A master printmaker, Sammallahti produces subtly textured prints whose broad tonality brings out the gentlest nuances of Scandinavian winter light; while Titarenko’s prints—combined with the effects of intentional camera movement, long exposure, and partial solarization—create an aura of magic and luminosity that is accented by selective toning with sepia, selenium, and gold.
The visual poetry of Sammallahti’s and Titarenko’s images is complemented by the written poetry of Carpelan and Sze-Lorrain. Carpelan, like Sammallahti, returns repeatedly to the motifs of coldness and ice and the solitude and harshness of winter; while Sze-Lorrain invokes the whiteness of snow and the questions of time and memory that also animate Titarenko’s work.
In the work of all four poets and photographers represented here, one theme remains the same: that of hope, and the transformation into a season of light, warmth, and rebirth. In Sammallahti’s work, this theme is most strongly expressed through the life-affirming, even playful presence of birds and animals; while in Titarenko’s, this theme emerges inevitably from a strong sense of the passage of time and of the power of light. In the words of Carpelan, “sooner or later / the ice will melt, / the sky will clear / and we’ll go on together. / Patience!”
We are excited to share that Alexey Titarenko's photographs will be on view in the International Center of Photography's upcoming exhibition We Are Here: Scenes From the Streets. The exhibition spotlights contemporary street photography from over 30 international photographers.
Scenes From the Streets highlights the diverse perspectives and techniques that define modern street photographers and emphasizes the role of the streets as a canvas for illustrating change.
The exhibition is curated by Guest Curator Isolde Brielmaier, PhD, with Noa Wynn, Independent Curatorial Assistant.
During the collapse of the USSR, Titarenko searched for a different visual language to express his country's new reality. His experiments with long exposure and innovative printmaking techniques in the context of street photography led to the series City of Shadows (1991-1994). This series brought him international acclaim and was shown around the world. A selection from the series can be viewed in the ICP exhibition.
The October 2023 issue of Black and White magazine published an insightful article by photography historian and curator George Slade about Alexey Titarenko's photomontages from the Gorbachev era of perestroika. Read the article here.
Alexey Titarenko's Havana photographs are a part of the exciting exhibition “AWE-some: time:: materiality:: meaning” at the Harn Museum of Art (November 22, 2022-May 14-2023). Curated by museum curator Carol McCusker, AWE-some celebrates new photographs recently bought for or donated to, the Harn’s permanent collection. Its theme: recognition of several brilliant, dedicated photographers, their time, their actual prints (not on a screen), and why they made them. AWE-some is also about you, the viewer, and what good artmaking can do for the heart and mind. To learn more visit the museum’s website.
Alexey Titarenko's photographs from the "City of Shadows" series are on view in "Blur" at Photo Elysee museum in Lausanne, Switzerland (3 March - 25 May 2023). This exhibition traces the history of blur in photography, from the invention of the process to the present. With comparisons to painting and cinema, it tells the story – via key works – of the evolution of this form, as well as of the values associated with it according to the different periods and photographic practices. The exhibition is curated by Pauline Martin.
"Alexey Titarenko: A Tale of Two Cities," a solo show exhibited at C. Grimaldis Gallery through March 4, 2023.
Alexey Titarenko e l’evanescenza della sostanza
by Giulio Piovesan
Compiuti da poco i sessant’anni di età, Alexey Titarenko è un autore che non ha ancora conosciuto tutto il successo che merita. Sorprendentemente non gode dell’attenzione che ci si aspetterebbe di vedergli dedicata dopo una brillante carriera iniziata quando era appena quindicenne e viveva nella natia San Pietroburgo (allora ancora chiamata Leningrado). Tra i suoi progetti più rappresentativi c’è la serie City of Shadows, realizzata tra il 1991 e il 1994, l’epoca in cui l’Unione Sovietica si stava irrimediabilmente sfaldando ed era finalmente possibile ritrarne il popolo senza attenersi alle linee guida della propaganda di stato.
Alexey Titarenko at Revela'T Festival 2022 in Vilassar de Dalt, Spain. The exhibition features a selection of digital photographs from the artist's series "City of Shadows" and "Nomenklatura of Signs," and runs from 10 September to 2 October 2022. Pentti Sammallahti: Here Far Away photo installation is on view until 30 September in Baden, Austria, in the framework of the Festival La Gacilly - Baden.
We are pleased to announce the exhibition Alexey Titarenko: City of Shadows at the National Gallery in Sofia, Bulgaria. The exhibition is organized by Fotofabrika Festival and runs from 30 June to 14 August 2022.
The exhibition includes 61 photographs, executed in the unique technique of silver gelatin hand printing, inviting the audience to trace the creative journey of the artist, starting with his most popular series, made in St. Petersburg: City of Shadows (1992–1994). The exhibition also includes the artist's recent work from New York, where he lives and works since 2007.
Nailya Alexander Gallery is excited to announce our participation in the 24th edition of Paris Photo, the world’s leading art fair dedicated to photography, taking place from Thursday, November 11 to Sunday, November 14, 2021, at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris.
This year, we present a solo exhibition of the artist Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962, St. Petersburg), focusing on his groundbreaking work “Nomenklatura of Signs” (1986–1991), a series of photomontages and collages inspired by the Russian avant-garde that depicts the absurd and darkly comic reality of Soviet life; and his subsequent series “City of Shadows” (1991–1994), wherein Titarenko unleashed the expressive potential of long exposure in capturing the suffering and anxiety that ensued during the collapse of the USSR. Titarenko’s haunting images of ghostlike crowds have become iconic today. Our exhibition is especially timely as it coincides with the 30th anniversary, in 2021, of the fall of the Soviet Union, and also includes some of Titarenko’s more recent work, including photographs of New York.
We are excited to share that the landmark retrospective exhibition Alexey Titarenko: City of Shadows opens Thursday 15 April at the renowned State Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSPHOTO in St. Petersburg, Russia. The exhibition is the first retrospective of the photographer’s works in St. Petersburg, marking a symbolic return of the artist’s works to the city.
As ROSPHOTO writes, “Alexey Titarenko is one of the most renowned representatives of Russian and St. Petersburg photography of the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. The exhibition includes 61 photographs, executed in the unique technique of silver gelatin hand printing, inviting the audience to trace the creative journey of the artist, starting with his most popular series, made in St. Petersburg: City of Shadows (1992–1994), Black and White Magic of St. Petersburg (1995–1997), Frozen Time [Time Standing Still] (1998–2000), and also series dedicated to other cities: Venice (2001–2014), Havana (2003, 2006), and New York (2004–2018)."
We are excited to announce that Alexey Titarenko will be the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, titled City of Shadows and on view Saturday 5 September through Sunday 18 October as part of the Moscow Photobiennale. The exhibition includes over sixty photographs from the past thirty years of Titarenko's career, including work from St. Petersburg, Venice, Havana, and New York. Please click the link below to read the press release and view selected images from the show.
We are pleased to share that Alexey Titarenko is the subject of an exhibition at Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo in Baden, Austria, on view 14 July - 26 October 2020. The largest outdoor festival in Europe, Festival Photo La Gacilly-Baden is entering its third year and is focused on photography that explores humanistic topics and the relationship between people and their environment. On view is work from Titarenko's series Nomenklatura of Signs and from his series made in St. Petersburg from 1991-2000, during and just after the fall of the Soviet Union. The exhibition is in collaboration with Camera Obscura Gallery in Paris.
On Thursday, September 14 from 6:30-8:00 PM, in conjunction with the exhibition Red Horizon, Alexey Titarenko will join a panel of artists, art historians, and curators at the Columbus Museum of Art to discuss the politics of cultural production in the USSR during the 20th century and the continued relevancy of the art of dissent today. In addition to Titarenko, participants include the artist Vitaly Komar; Natalia Sidlina, curator or Russian art at Tate Modern in London; and Christina Kiaer, Assosiate Professor of Art History at Northwestern University. This program is free and open to all.
Alexey Titarenko will be holding a lecture, Q&A, and book signing at Soho Photo on Thursday, December 8 from 6:00-7:30 PM. Titarenko will be discussing his series City of Shadows, and will be selling and signing copies of his sold-out monograph The City is a Novel (Damiani, 2015). The event is free and open to the public.
Curator, writer, and art historian Gabriel Bauret writes, "Titarenko’s photography does not reduce itself to the mere capturing of an instant. While printing in the darkroom, he combines different sources of light and selectively tones his prints to achieve subtle nuances of color. Also important to note that the work done in the lab is never twice the same: each print is as unique as the shot...If a city is the privileged territory of a novel, even with a relatively autobiographical dimension, the city can also be an inspiration for artistic expression. Alexey Titarenko has combined the two approaches."
William Meyers writes, "Mr. Titarenko’s pictures of St. Petersburg, Venice, Havana, and New York are not about the buildings, streets and parks of those cities per se, but about them as sites of narrative. In most of these images one feels the setting is a place where something has happened, or is happening, or is going to happen; there is a theatricality about them. The technical device Mr. Titarenko uses to achieve this effect is the long exposure, keeping the lens open so that moving figures are blurred, sometimes appearing almost as wraiths. He is also a brilliant printer, able to control the tonal values in his prints to emphasize and deemphasize particular elements. In an affecting autobiographical essay he tells how reading Dostoevsky and listening to Shostakovich freed him from the Soviet mindset to become truly creative."
The October 2023 issue of Black and White magazine published an insightful article by photography historian and curator George Slade about Alexey Titarenko's photomontages from the Gorbachev era of perestroika.
