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Garage Museum of Contemporary Art archive

Acquired from the artist

Acquired from Alexey Veselovsky

Andrey Olenev is an artist whose practice combines street art, painting, drawing, and installation. He creates complex visual narratives filled with philosophical musings on people, their internal world, and the reality that surrounds them. In his works he often references the traditions of Medieval and Northern Renaissance art, combining them with contemporary urbanist motifs and surrealist subjects. One of the key areas of Olenev’s work is the artist’s book, where only the text and illustrations are important but also the texture of the paper, the binding, and the use of non‑standard materials. 

 In Between the Lines the text loses its usual function. The letters are reduced to the size of a pixel, transforming into an abstract, rhythmic pattern reminiscent of Morse code, and the lead role is played by the illustrations. Unlike in Olenev’s previous works they are not on a single subject and instead are independent visual statements on the problems of the urban environment. Double‑sided printing on tracing paper allows the illegible text to be seen through the illustration, creating an additional semantic tension. The cover of the book is in the form of a modest box made of bookbinding card, and inside is a series of illustrations that balance somewhere between the absurd and metaphor. A wooden house is transformed into a rickety hut with a window frozen in the void; a bucket with water flowing from it disrupts the very idea of its purpose; a garbage bag tied with a red ribbon like a gift underlines the ironic contradiction between form and content. These images, which combine subtlety of making and a sharp social subtext, create a dissonance between aesthetic refinement and the theme of everyday disorder.

 Andrey Olenev is an artist whose practice combines street art, painting, drawing, and installation. He creates complex visual narratives filled with philosophical musings on people, their internal world, and the reality that surrounds them. In his works he often references the traditions of Medieval and Northern Renaissance art, combining them with contemporary urbanist motifs and surrealist subjects. One of the key areas of Olenev’s work is the artist’s book, where only the text and illustrations are important but also the texture of the paper, the binding, and the use of non‑standard materials. 

 In Between the Lines the text loses its usual function. The letters are reduced to the size of a pixel, transforming into an abstract, rhythmic pattern reminiscent of Morse code, and the lead role is played by the illustrations. Unlike in Olenev’s previous works they are not on a single subject and instead are independent visual statements on the problems of the urban environment. Double‑sided printing on tracing paper allows the illegible text to be seen through the illustration, creating an additional semantic tension. The cover of the book is in the form of a modest box made of bookbinding card, and inside is a series of illustrations that balance somewhere between the absurd and metaphor. A wooden house is transformed into a rickety hut with a window frozen in the void; a bucket with water flowing from it disrupts the very idea of its purpose; a garbage bag tied with a red ribbon like a gift underlines the ironic contradiction between form and content. These images, which combine subtlety of making and a sharp social subtext, create a dissonance between aesthetic refinement and the theme of everyday disorder. 

Between the Lines

Arkady Nasonov is one of the key representatives of the younger generation of conceptualists and works at the intersection of painting, drawing, performance, and text. His synthetic art brings together fact and fiction, dream and reality, passing them through the aesthetics of the Moscow Conceptual School. 

 Beyond the Horizon is one of the first book‑objects created by Nasonov after the founding of the group Cloud Commission in 1992. It is linked to the subject of poet Alexander Delfinov’s mystical story “From the Notebook of Doctor Garkavy,” in which childhood memories, paranormal phenomena, military secrets, and Garkavy’s “cloud poems” intertwine (at the end the mysterious blue cloud becomes a portal between worlds and dimensions). However, Nasonov does not recall which came first, the text or the drawings. 

 The book is a panoramic interactive object that is over 2.5 meters long and features drawings and appliqué. It is a book‑journey in which three‑dimensional elements replace each other like theater sets, leading the reader through clouds that are just about to disperse, lifting the veil of mystery. 

 As one of Doctor Garkavy’s poems puts it: 

 Everything that was, everything that will be
Will unroll like Scotch tape
And adhere to the sky,
Concealing the clouds.

 Arkady Nasonov is one of the key representatives of the younger generation of conceptualists and works at the intersection of painting, drawing, performance, and text. His synthetic art brings together fact and fiction, dream and reality, passing them through the aesthetics of the Moscow Conceptual School. 

  Beyond the Horizon  is one of the first book‑objects created by Nasonov after the founding of the group Cloud Commission in 1992. It is linked to the subject of poet Alexander Delfinov’s mystical story “From the Notebook of Doctor Garkavy,” in which childhood memories, paranormal phenomena, military secrets, and Garkavy’s “cloud poems” intertwine (at the end the mysterious blue cloud becomes a portal between worlds and dimensions). However, Nasonov does not recall which came first, the text or the drawings. 

 The book is a panoramic interactive object that is over 2.5 meters long and features drawings and appliqué. It is a book‑journey in which three‑dimensional elements replace each other like theater sets, leading the reader through clouds that are just about to disperse, lifting the veil of mystery. 

 As one of Doctor Garkavy’s poems puts it: 

 Everything that was, everything that will be
Will unroll like Scotch tape
And adhere to the sky,
Concealing the clouds. 

Beyond the Horizon

From the early 1970s Nikita Alexeev, one of the key artists of Moscow Conceptualism, created drawing series, artist’s books, and comic albums, investigating the interaction between text and image. His ABC Your first book, published on the initiative of printing studio Piranesi LAB, continues this tradition by combining intellectual play and artistic experiment.

The publication is a set of separate, screenprinted pages, on each of which are depicted two objects that begin with the same letter of the English alphabet. The preface by Nikita Alexeev and Irina Gorlova is included separately. Five books of the edition of 35 were hand colored by the artist. The other 30 books each contain two randomly selected colored pages that are not repeated in the others. Alexeev suggests that future owners color the rest of the letters.

Inspired by Alexandre Benois’ Alphabet in Pictures (1904), Alexeev creates his version of absurd, unexpected “surrealist pairs” that contrast in terms of scale and meaning. This is not simply an alphabet book but a hedonistic game of associations in which the sun that migrates from page to page is an immutable leitmotif.

From the early 1970s Nikita Alexeev, one of the key artists of Moscow Conceptualism, created drawing series, artist’s books, and comic albums, investigating the interaction between text and image. His ABC Your first book, published on the initiative of printing studio Piranesi LAB, continues this tradition by combining intellectual play and artistic experiment.

The publication is a set of separate, screenprinted pages, on each of which are depicted two objects that begin with the same letter of the English alphabet. The preface by Nikita Alexeev and Irina Gorlova is included separately. Five books of the edition of 35 were hand colored by the artist. The other 30 books each contain two randomly selected colored pages that are not repeated in the others. Alexeev suggests that future owners color the rest of the letters.

Inspired by Alexandre Benois’ Alphabet in Pictures (1904), Alexeev creates his version of absurd, unexpected “surrealist pairs” that contrast in terms of scale and meaning. This is not simply an alphabet book but a hedonistic game of associations in which the sun that migrates from page to page is an immutable leitmotif.

Your first book

The handmade book occupies a particular place in the artistic practice of Sergei Shutov, combining text, image, and a conceptual play on meaning. Brass Knuckles is one of his first books. It is small‑format, three pages with India ink drawings and poetic text, extremely laconic, but filled with a structure in which avant‑garde tradition, the aesthetics of Moscow Conceptualism, and the influence of Eastern philosophy intertwine.

Shutov, who worked at the Oriental Museum when Brass Knuckles was made, absorbed Chinese and Buddhist poetics, which is reflected in the rhythm and morphologism of this work. Here, the lubok print is side by side with psychedelia, and disparate registers form an integrated whole: cosmology (“No, that’s enough comets and planets…”), folklore from Soviet primers (“Mama washed the frame…”), and at the same time a kind of predetermination (“It’s mama’s karma…”). Shutov explores the boundaries of text and the form of drawing, creating a book‑gesture with the potential for multiple interpretations.

The handmade book occupies a particular place in the artistic practice of Sergei Shutov, combining text, image, and a conceptual play on meaning. Brass Knuckles is one of his first books. It is small‑format, three pages with India ink drawings and poetic text, extremely laconic, but filled with a structure in which avant‑garde tradition, the aesthetics of Moscow Conceptualism, and the influence of Eastern philosophy intertwine.

Shutov, who worked at the Oriental Museum when Brass Knuckles was made, absorbed Chinese and Buddhist poetics, which is reflected in the rhythm and morphologism of this work. Here, the lubok print is side by side with psychedelia, and disparate registers form an integrated whole: cosmology (“No, that’s enough comets and planets…”), folklore from Soviet primers (“Mama washed the frame…”), and at the same time a kind of predetermination (“It’s mama’s karma…”). Shutov explores the boundaries of text and the form of drawing, creating a book‑gesture with the potential for multiple interpretations.

Brass Knuckles

The book is based on documentary material about the village of Kucher in Udmurtia, the artist’s birthplace, which is special to her. It shows the celebration Village Day, in which residents and former residents who have returned for one day to their home village, gather at a long table, talk about life, problems, and joys, and drink, eat, sing, play, and recall the heyday of the village and their youth. 

 Village Day takes place on Parents’ Day, the day of remembering the dead, when people go to the cemetery and then stay for a short while. This book is about threads, connections, memory, family, and one’s roots; about how a sparsely populated, disappearing village comes back to life on the “day of the dead;” about the close links between pagan rituals and Christian traditions. The book also includes another subject connected to the artist’s family tree: archive materials which are in dialogue with the overall narrative. 

 The book comprises 38 unbound drawings made using India ink and accompanied by a printed text on sheets of tracing paper. The sheets are wrapped in several layers: a folder with a cutout, a sleeve for the folder, and a case for storage. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy.

 The book is based on documentary material about the village of Kucher in Udmurtia, the artist’s birthplace, which is special to her. It shows the celebration Village Day, in which residents and former residents who have returned for one day to their home village, gather at a long table, talk about life, problems, and joys, and drink, eat, sing, play, and recall the heyday of the village and their youth.  

 Village Day takes place on Parents’ Day, the day of remembering the dead, when people go to the cemetery and then stay for a short while. This book is about threads, connections, memory, family, and one’s roots; about how a sparsely populated, disappearing village comes back to life on the “day of the dead;” about the close links between pagan rituals and Christian traditions. The book also includes another subject connected to the artist’s family tree: archive materials which are in dialogue with the overall narrative.  

 The book comprises 38 unbound drawings made using India ink and accompanied by a printed text on sheets of tracing paper. The sheets are wrapped in several layers: a folder with a cutout, a sleeve for the folder, and a case for storage.  

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy. 

Village Day

Valery Korchagin’s artistic method can be described as research based. He works with cultural memory, archetypes, and mythology, using a wide range of materials and techniques. His works, whether drawings, objects or installations, are often reminiscent of archeological finds where layers of visual elements form complex structures full of hidden meanings. The artist’s book occupies a key place in Korchagin’s oeuvre, and he extends it beyond the traditional format. For example, Book Bomb (2014) includes not only illustrations and text but real wires with a light bulb and a wobble toy, transforming the book into an interactive object. Korchagin avoids direct statements, preferring to create works that exist as personal testimony, combining handmadeness and elements of readymades.

The History of Geological Exploration Expedition 67/67, 1948–1949 is a striking example of the transformation of the documentary form into artistic expression. The book is reminiscent of a technical report, full of figures and terms. The illustrations, which include portraits of expedition participants, maps of locations, drawings of plants and precious stones, and depictions of measuring instruments such as the circumferentor or dynamometer, create an illusion of scientific accuracy that is gradually destroyed.
The Syumkev Massif becomes the location of a tragicomic drama: a group of geologists finds the corpse of an unknown person, depicted using a single detail‑a pair of boots‑after which the expedition participants begin to go crazy and die. Korchagin creates a philosophical reflection on the nature of reality, time, and human experience in which the documentary approach becomes an absurd mystification and the scientific report a parable of the futility of seeking meaning in chaos.

Valery Korchagin’s artistic method can be described as research based. He works with cultural memory, archetypes, and mythology, using a wide range of materials and techniques. His works, whether drawings, objects or installations, are often reminiscent of archeological finds where layers of visual elements form complex structures full of hidden meanings. The artist’s book occupies a key place in Korchagin’s oeuvre, and he extends it beyond the traditional format. For example, Book Bomb (2014) includes not only illustrations and text but real wires with a light bulb and a wobble toy, transforming the book into an interactive object. Korchagin avoids direct statements, preferring to create works that exist as personal testimony, combining handmadeness and elements of readymades.

The History of Geological Exploration Expedition 67/67, 1948–1949 is a striking example of the transformation of the documentary form into artistic expression. The book is reminiscent of a technical report, full of figures and terms. The illustrations, which include portraits of expedition participants, maps of locations, drawings of plants and precious stones, and depictions of measuring instruments such as the circumferentor or dynamometer, create an illusion of scientific accuracy that is gradually destroyed.
The Syumkev Massif becomes the location of a tragicomic drama: a group of geologists finds the corpse of an unknown person, depicted using a single detail‑a pair of boots‑after which the expedition participants begin to go crazy and die. Korchagin creates a philosophical reflection on the nature of reality, time, and human experience in which the documentary approach becomes an absurd mystification and the scientific report a parable of the futility of seeking meaning in chaos.

The History of Geological Exploration Expedition 67/67, 1948–1949

Andrey Olenev is an artist whose practice is rooted in painting but extends beyond its traditional framework to encompass public art, installation, and multipart wooden objects that completely or partially conceal the image. His works are always a dialogue with the material, be it the surface of an urban wall, a piece of board, oil paints or paper. Wood, the basis of his paintings, is also a key element in the creation of his artist’s books, where every detail‑from the texture of the veneer to the metal fixings‑is part of the artistic message. 

 The form of the book Rings was inspired by antique scrolls. The arched beech veneer cover is a metaphor for a tree trunk and the rolled pages imitate its rings. Inside there is a series of watercolor illustrations recording everyday city life. Olenev first started making artist’s books in 2012 and even in his first publications he used a crossed out, illegible text which in Rings takes on a new, more refined form. The text accompanying each illustration does not simply disappear beneath the lines but seems to crumble, breaking into pieces, echoing the illustrations with their ruined wooden architecture and shambolic urban environment. This technique is a visual metaphor for a slippery reality in which words lose their strength but images remain, forcing the viewer to observe things which go unnoticed but are no less important for that.

 Andrey Olenev is an artist whose practice is rooted in painting but extends beyond its traditional framework to encompass public art, installation, and multipart wooden objects that completely or partially conceal the image. His works are always a dialogue with the material, be it the surface of an urban wall, a piece of board, oil paints or paper. Wood, the basis of his paintings, is also a key element in the creation of his artist’s books, where every detail‑from the texture of the veneer to the metal fixings‑is part of the artistic message. 

 The form of the book Rings was inspired by antique scrolls. The arched beech veneer cover is a metaphor for a tree trunk and the rolled pages imitate its rings. Inside there is a series of watercolor illustrations recording everyday city life. Olenev first started making artist’s books in 2012 and even in his first publications he used a crossed out, illegible text which in Rings takes on a new, more refined form. The text accompanying each illustration does not simply disappear beneath the lines but seems to crumble, breaking into pieces, echoing the illustrations with their ruined wooden architecture and shambolic urban environment. This technique is a visual metaphor for a slippery reality in which words lose their strength but images remain, forcing the viewer to observe things which go unnoticed but are no less important for that. 

Rings

Andrey Olenev works at the intersection of painting, public art, and installation. He is known for his large‑scale, detailed paintings on wooden houses in the historical center of Nizhny Novgorod, which featured a fantastical combination of the theme of disappearing nature and Medieval and Renaissance motifs. 

 Artist’s books first appeared in Olenev’s practice in 2012 as a means of telling a story that would affect the viewer’s perception in various ways. His books are tactile, and their texture, form, and construction are unusual. To interact with them the reader has to be directly involved. 

 In the book Scaffolding the artist develops the theme of the city and nature. When open the book is reminiscent of scaffolding: nine wooden boards with seven printed drawings bound using cotton twine. From top to bottom, from crown to roots, a silent story of a mystical hero unfolds‑the alter ego of the artist, a secret watcher dissolving in the landscape. A similar personage can be found in the painting series A Secondary Character, on which Olenev worked in parallel from 2020 to 2023.

 Andrey Olenev works at the intersection of painting, public art, and installation. He is known for his large‑scale, detailed paintings on wooden houses in the historical center of Nizhny Novgorod, which featured a fantastical combination of the theme of disappearing nature and Medieval and Renaissance motifs.  

 Artist’s books first appeared in Olenev’s practice in 2012 as a means of telling a story that would affect the viewer’s perception in various ways. His books are tactile, and their texture, form, and construction are unusual. To interact with them the reader has to be directly involved.  

 In the book Scaffolding the artist develops the theme of the city and nature. When open the book is reminiscent of scaffolding: nine wooden boards with seven printed drawings bound using cotton twine. From top to bottom, from crown to roots, a silent story of a mystical hero unfolds‑the alter ego of the artist, a secret watcher dissolving in the landscape. A similar personage can be found in the painting series A Secondary Character, on which Olenev worked in parallel from 2020 to 2023. 

Scaffolding

The character in this leporello, as in a number of other projects by the artist is Gertrude Savage, a hybrid of a superhero and someone from a lubok print. Gertrude’s main weapons are a mighty plait (of hair) and magic gloves made from birch bark. A pack of young men with dog heads are her faithful servants, and her feats include victory over giant mutant catfish, saving parachutists from the horrors of their professional holiday, and pacifying the raging Moscow River. 

 The book is a graphic story with rare text inserts. Podkorytova makes active use of urban folklore and plays with gender roles, turning existing stereotypes inside out. The leporello is almost six meters long and is illustrated on both sides with India ink and watercolor. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy.

 The character in this leporello, as in a number of other projects by the artist is Gertrude Savage, a hybrid of a superhero and someone from a lubok print. Gertrude’s main weapons are a mighty plait (of hair) and magic gloves made from birch bark. A pack of young men with dog heads are her faithful servants, and her feats include victory over giant mutant catfish, saving parachutists from the horrors of their professional holiday, and pacifying the raging Moscow River. 

 The book is a graphic story with rare text inserts. Podkorytova makes active use of urban folklore and plays with gender roles, turning existing stereotypes inside out. The leporello is almost six meters long and is illustrated on both sides with India ink and watercolor. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy. 

Gertrude Savage and the Moscow River

1. Открытый доступ

Мастер

Arkady Nasonov was born in Sverdlovsk. He graduated from the Design Faculty of the Moscow Arts Theater School and Studio (1991). Together with Dmitry Ligeiros and Tatyana Detkina he founded the art group Cloud Commission (1992). He was a member of the poetry society TARTU (1995–1999). He is a recipient of grants from the Rijksakademie (Amsterdam, 1999), Künstlerhäuser Worpswede (Germany, 2002), and La Napoule Art Foundation (Cannes, 2005).

Nasonov Arkady

Sergei Shutov was born in 1955 in Potsdam. He was a member of the City Committee of Graphic Artists (Moscow) from 1978. He worked on the film Assa (1987) and took part in concerts by the band Pop‑Mekhanika. He founded the Institute of Art Technology (Moscow, 1992), ran practical sessions at Moscow Artistic Laboratory of New Media (Moscow, 1994), and was a VJ at the club Ptyuch (Moscow). He exhibited in the Russian Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale (2011).

Shutov Sergei

Nikita Alexeev was born in Moscow. From 1964 to 1967, he studied at Moscow Middle Art School of the Moscow Surikov State Art Institute and then at 1905 Moscow State Academic Art College in the Department of Industrial Graphics and Advertising. From 1973 to 1976, he studied at Moscow Printing Institute in the Faculty of Artistic and Technical Design of Print Products (he did not graduate). From 1976 to 1983, he was a member of the group Collective Actions. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977). He was one of the organizers of MANI (Moscow Archive of New Art). From 1982 to 1984, he was co‑founder and director of APTART Gallery, which was located in his studio apartment in Moscow.

Alexeev Nikita

Andrey Olenev was born in Nizhny Novgorod. He is a member of the informal art association Muddlehood and co‑founder of Tolk Gallery. He participated in the publishing project of the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (2019), the art residency of the 6th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (2021), and the exhibitions Fresh Layer (Arsenal, Nizhny Novgorod; PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, 2017), Life of the Living (National Center for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, 2017), Tragedy in the Corner (Museum of Moscow, 2018), and Unnamed. Selected Works from the Collection of Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Arsenal, Nizhny Novgorod, 2021). He is a resident artist at Tikhaya Studio (Nizhny Novgorod).

Olenev Andrei

Tatyana Faskhutdinova was born in Mozhga (Udmurtskaya ASSR). She graduated from the Institute of Art and Design at Udmurt State University (Izhevsk, 2012) and studied in Sergei Orlov’s Experimental Contemporary Painting Studio (Izhevsk, 2010). She has participated in symposia and exhibitions of contemporary art in Izhevsk, Nizhny Novgorod, and Moscow. Since 2009 she has been a member of the art group CheBeR.

Faskhutdinova Tatyana

Ulyana Podkorytova was born in Bryansk. She graduated from Moscow Ivan Fyodorov State Printing University (2007), Rodchenko Art School (Moscow, 2017), and the Natalia Pshenichnikova’s Voice Laboratory at the Theater Institute (2016). She participated in the New Holland Island International Debut Film Festival (St. Petersburg, 2019) and the Platonov Arts Festival (Voronezh, 2019).

Podkorytova Ul'yana

Valery Korchagin was born in Krasnouralsk (Sverdlovskaya Oblast). He graduated from the Faculty of Art History and Culture Studies of Ural State University (Yekaterinburg, 1999) and the Interior Design Department of the Professional Development Faculty of Ural State Academy of Architecture and Art (Yekaterinburg, 2010). He headed the Artist’s Book Studio (National Center for Contemporary Arts, ROSIZO, 2015–2018). He is co‑founder of the Artist’s Book Museum (Moscow, 2020). He is a member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia (New Trends Section).

Catalogue of the Collection

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