Artists for Children is a series of monthly meetings with contemporary artists that was launched in 2016.
At the meetings children and their parents will not only learn about the work of contemporary artists but can also work with them and become co-authors.
In the new season of Artists for Children the meetings will be in two parts. First the artists will talk about themselves and the subjects of their work, and during the creative part they will share one of the techniques they work with.
Free admission with advance registration.
Together with artist and writer Katya Gushchina, participants will discuss the role of intense emotions in life using the example of her book 100 Reasons Why Tolstoy Cries.
During the creative session, the group will create a collective «tear canvas» and take part in a small procession featuring it, followed by making individual comics using collage techniques.
About the Artist
Katya Gushchina is an artist, illustrator, and author. She graduated in Graphic Design from the Higher School of Economics. She participated in the Bologna Children’s Book Fair illustrators’ exhibition (2023) and is the author of illustrated books, including 100 Reasons Why Tolstoy Cries, Gorky Who Wanted to Fly, and Rumors in the Empire, among others.
During the meeting the group will be introduced to the themes, mediums, and works of artist Aryuna Soktueva. Aryuna will also share how losing her sight influenced her creative path and talk about her experience participating in the project I Will Never See It. I Will Never Forget It.
In the creative part of the session participants will make keychains using large beads.
About the artist
Aryuna Soktueva is an artist and a contributor and mediator in Yulia Abzaltdinova’s project I Will Never See It. I Will Never Forget It (GES-2, 2024). She works in a variety of techniques, including drawing, sculpting, knitting, beadwork, and origami.
Artist Katya Adriyanova will talk about the themes, subjects, and materials she works with, as well as the role that flaws and imperfections play in her practice.
The creative part of the meeting will see participants engage with their imagination and sensations as they capture images that arise in response to descriptions of situations or objects proposed by the artist. The boldest ones can try creating images with their eyes closed.
About the host
Katya Adriyanova is an artist and curator. She works with visual culture, dance, and performance. Her artistic practice explores the traditions of formalism and minimalism. She studied at the AAcademy19 education platform, the online school Sreda Obuchenia, and the View Foundation workshop.
During the meeting artist Tanya Klyat will introduce her artistic practice, including the techniques and subjects she works with. Participants will discuss why artists address emotions and how they represent them through their work.
The creative part of the session will center on self-expression, with participants portraying their inner world by sculpting clay planets using the technique of three-dimensional painting.
About the host
Tanya Klyat is an artist and sculptor. She is the author and host of masterclasses based around intuitive creativity. Her artistic practice focuses on self-exploration and emotional expression through art. She conducts workshops, works as a guest expert at the SKOLKOVO Moscow School of Management, and teaches at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow).
Artist Valentina Andreeva will discuss her work with drawing, sound, and installations.
Together with Valentina participants will also explore how we perceive sound in different
ways, how sound can be visually represented, and how people with hearing loss can
engage with it.
During the practical part, children will reflect on how sound might look and create visual
interpretations of sounds they’ve never heard.
About the artist
Valentina Andreeva is an artist who lost her hearing at the age of two and a half. She
works with drawing, sound, and installations. She has participated in more than twenty
group exhibitions and is a resident at Garage Studios and Peredelkino House of Creativity.
Andreeva has been nominated for the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize and was a finalist of the
fourth season of the Vaults Center for Artistic Production’s ColLab program.
Mila Grishina will share the story of her artistic practice with the group, speaking about the
role of imagination, abstraction, and nostalgia in her work and explaining the importance of
staying connected with one’s inner child.
During the practical part, Mila will encourage participants to tap into their own imagination.
Using a pastel drawing as a starting point, they will complete several exercises designed
to help them discover artistic stories in the everyday objects around them.
About the artist
Mila Grishina is an artist and restorer. She is the founder of the projects Pardon Vintage
and Mymomisocool. In her practice she often draws on a whimsical world that borders on
childhood, as well as themes of abstraction and nostalgia. She leads free-drawing
sessions for children and adults, works as a tattoo artist, and creates personalized
sketches inspired by memories, emotions, and pet portraits.
Lesha will discuss his practice, show how to approach drawing as a game, and explain how contemporary artists use game techniques in their work.
During the practical part of the meeting, participants will draw lots to select several artistic techniques to practice. Tasks will include unusual drawing techniques, such as using different hands and combining materials. At the end, participants will discuss their works and their experience trying out new approaches to drawing.
About the Artist
Lesha Geld is an artist, illustrator, and teacher. He works in drawing and sculpture and teaches architectural sketching at Garage and drawing at Schusev State Museum of Architecture. He is studying illustration at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow and has exhibited his work at Winzavod.
Artist Masha Pryanichnikova will talk about her illustrations for Polina Pokladok’s new children’s book Experimental House: How I Lived in the Narkomfin Building and about Constructivism and Constructivist architects and artists. During the creative part, each participant will model their own project of a Constructivist building from paper.
About the Artist
Masha Pryanichnikova is an artist and illustrator. She graduated in Painting from the State Academy of Slavic Culture (Moscow) and is a teacher at Prostaya School. She has illustrated books for Anastasia Orlova Publishing House, Booksmart, Polyandria, Alpina, and A+A. She has provided illustrations for the magazines Baku and Seasons Project. Her solo exhibitions include Line and Spot (Artmuza Gallery, St. Petersburg, 2020) and V sebe (Seasons Publishing, Moscow, 2024).
About the Book
Experimental House: How I Lived in the Narkomfin Building by Polina Pokladok is a children’s book on the history of the Narkomfin Building. A young boy named Petya who lived there in the 1930s introduces readers to this amazing building. Petya tells us about its unusual structure, the cell apartments, the new lifestyle of the residents, and even about the secrets of the building, such as where the black-and-white doors from the fourth-floor corridor led. Together with Petya, we visit architect Moisei Ginzburg and see the penthouse of Nikolai Milyutin, who inspired the design for the building.
About the Author
Polina Pokladok is an art historian who specializes in Russian architecture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and a researcher at the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture. She graduated in the History of Russian Art from Moscow State University. She takes part in academic conferences, gives lectures, and leads tours for adults and children. In 2023, the book What Melnikov Invented, co-authored by Polina, won the Arch Moscow exhibition award for «Best Children’s Book on Architecture.» In 2023, another children’s book on architecture that she co-authored was published: Alexey Shchusev: The Architect Who Conquered Time.
Alina Konovalova and Maria Vorontsova of the art group ye_yo will talk about their practice and working with various printing techniques. They will introduce the audience to the history of monotyping and explain how it is different from other printing techniques. During the creative part of the meeting, participants will make monotype winter postcards using seasonal fruit and vegetables.
About the Artists
Alina Konovalova is a graphic artist, maker of comics, and founder of the print collective ye_yo, who runs hand printing workshops.
Maria Vorontsova is an illustrator, teacher, and children’s art workshops tutor. She works in mixed media, including hand printing.
Participants will look at the work of Serafim Infante-Arana, learn about various printing techniques, and see how people have multiplied images over the centuries. During the practical part they will try out three printing techniques and create a character using a linotype construction set. The group will produce a mini manual with information on printing techniques and their own prints, which they can take home.
About the Artist
Serafim Gaitan Primus Infante-Arana, successor to Golefornak and Alchumaz, is a Moscow-based artist, tutor, and developer of children’s programs. He works with various printing techniques, video, editing, and sound. He has taken part in SWAB BARCELONA ART FAIR (2016), and is a resident at FERRUM FABER print house. He has worked with the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and AZ Museum as a tutor and methodologist of education programs. He has shown his work at CATACOMBA Gallery, AZ Museum, and Klubique.
Lesha will talk about his practice and his work with different mediums, focusing on multifigure compositions. Participants will discuss how space forms between people and how it can change.
Lesha will show how to create a convincing, vibrant spatial drawing of a group of people playing a game. Participants will play «drawing twister» and together figure out how to draw a crowd and convey the interaction between various characters. Each participant will create their own multifigure composition.
About the Artist
Lesha Geld is an artist, illustrator, and teacher. He works with drawing and sculpture. He teaches architectural sketching at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art and drawing at workshops at Shchusev State Museum of Architecture. He studied illustration at British Higher School of Art and Design (Moscow) and has taken part in exhibitions at Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art.
Lena will talk about her art and the way she works with different genres, focusing in particular on the book as a physical object, a way of experiencing reality, a means of communication, and a possible substitute for real life. Participants will discuss how a book can be a bridge that connects people and allows us to see new things.
They will also explore why books need covers and will design covers for real or imagined books.
About the Artist
Lena Kholkina is an artist, choreographer, and independent publisher. She works with photography, video, dance, objects, and the format and functions of the book. She is currently interested in non-existent worlds, reinvention of things, escaping the everyday, and dreams.
Participants will learn about various textile techniques that Ulyana uses in her projects, see her work The Layers of Fear, and discuss fears, hopes, the notion of the comfort zone, and feeling safe.
During the practical part they will get to work with new materials, such as dublerin, and make an associative appliqué work on the theme Where I Am.
About the Artist
Ulyana Yolkina (b. 1998, Dmitrov) is an artist, designer, and teacher. She graduated from St. Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design and was a resident of the tenth season of Open Workshops at Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art. Her works explore childhood, womanhood, coming-of-age, and the place of individuals in the social world. She lives and works in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
During the meeting Yulia will talk about her project Red Thread and share her view of photography as an artistic technique. The artist will bring photos from her archive and briefly discuss each of them. Participants will then create their own works based on the archive.
About the Artist
Yulia Abzaltdinova is an interdisciplinary artist. She graduated from Rodchenko Art School, Moscow (2014) and the Free Workshops at Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2023). She works with visual media and found archive materials, exploring social themes of individual and group identity and the effect of humans on the natural world. She creates inclusive projects together with blind and partially sighted people. She lives and works in Yekaterinburg and Moscow.
Anya will speak about her practice and one of the key themes in her work, which is communicating with other people or with creatures who are unlike us, and ways of finding a common language in the absence of common interests or beliefs. She will show several of her works that explore the subject, including Unrecognised Speech and Here, In Silence.
The practical part will involve free interpretation using collage. Participants will be offered photographic images to interpret using their own imagery, ideas, and stories in the form of a collage.
About the Artist
Anya Prikhodko (b. 1989, Moscow) is an artist, teacher, and researcher. She is a member of the art collective ShShSh. She graduated from Rodchenko Art School (Moscow) and Moscow Polytechnic University and received further training in video game animation at Daejeon University, South Korea. She works with video, found photographs, and drawings. She teaches at Rodchenko Art School and has developed her own courses and lectures on contemporary art and visual practices. She was a resident at Garage Studios (Moscow) in 2023.
Dasha will show her ink drawings, talk about the themes she explores in her practice, and demonstrate several ways of working with ink and a quill.
One of her favorite techniques is drawing on wet paper: paper changes color when it gets wet and once again when it dries out, and the artist cannot always predict where the line will be blurry and where it will remain fine. The process of drawing is therefore close to natural processes and involves a lot of flowing water.
During the practical part, participants will make their own brushes from different materials, learn about the best materials for working with a brush, and produce their own works celebrating spring using ink and their new brushes.
About the Artist
Dasha Malinina (b. 1999, Cherepovets) is an artist, teacher, and curator. She studied set and stage design at the Art and Design School of the Higher School of Economics. Her preferred mediums are works on paper, sculpture, and set design and costumes for theater and performance.
Yulia Dibrova will talk about how she chose to become an artist and about her project Silence Hotel. Participants will discuss how we can explore the world around us through art and how everyday objects can inspire us to make art.
During the practical part participants will draw the images that come to them after the discussion of Yulia’s work and make a mosaic based on them using an unusual material.
About the Artist
Yulia Dibrova (b. 1988, Moscow) is a contemporary artist, curator, and jewelry maker. She studied at Joseph Backstein Institute of Contemporary Art and the Open Studios at Winzavod (10th season). Her first degree was in political science, with a focus on questions of gender. Her preferred mediums are objects, installation, and sculpture. She started her career in performance (taking part in Kembra Pfahler’s performance at Garage in 2011), photography, and conceptual jewelry.
Nastya Rybakova will introduce participants to the notion of facedropping and talk about the emotions that films and ads can evoke using expressions and faces. She will share her experience of using faces in her work.
During the practical part participants will make cards using facedropping and collage and discuss how they make them feel.
About the Artist
Nastya Rybakova (b. 1998, Krasnoyarsk) is an artist interested in empathy, imagination, and children’s perception of the world. She studied architecture at the Institute of Architecture and Design, Siberian Federal University (2016–2022) and was a resident at Garage Studios (2023–2024). Her main mediums include works on paper, textile sculpture, installation, and video and sound art.
What is an installation? How can you turn an everyday object into a work of art? What is digital art? Artist Anna Komarova will help you find answers to these questions by showing examples of her work and talking about the themes she explores in her artistic practice.
During the creative part of the meeting Anna will help participants to transform everyday objects into contemporary art works.
About the Artist
Anna Komarova is an artist and scriptwriter. She studied at the Moscow Arts Theater School and Studio and attended the 8th season of the Open Studios at Winzavod and the Free Studios at MMOMA. She works mainly with installations and objects and also with digital and sound art.
Kristina will introduce her work and explain how the weaving loom was a predecessor of the modern computer. After briefly introducing themselves, participants will weave a joint tapestry using various kinds of yarn and the objects they have brought. During the final discussion they can share their thoughts and feelings about the process.
We ask participants to bring small self-portrait objects that they believe resemble their character or looks. No weaving experience is required. Kristina will explain what to do during the meeting.
About the Artist
Kristina Pashkova (b. 1992) is an artist. She studied at MMOMA Free Workshops and Joseph Backstein Institute of Contemporary Art. Kristina took part in the programs Friends of Svody and ColLab Svody (Moscow, 2023), where she wove her works using a hand-operated electronic Jacquard TC2 loom. She was a resident at Baltic Art Center (2023, Visby, Sweden) and WHW Akademija, an independent project by the group of curators WHW (2022, Zagreb, Croatia).
In the first part of the meeting Anya will talk about her practice as a textile artist and discuss the subjects and imagery she explores in her work: the everyday and nature, the boundaries of what is personal and public, illusions and appearances. In the second part, participants will create a large fantastical landscape using embroidery and appliqué.
About the Artist
Anya Grositskaya is an artist, lecturer, and tutor on participatory inclusive programs. In spring 2023 she taught a course on textile books and embroidery at Garage and masterclasses on contemporary textile work at The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. In summer 2023 she graduated from The School of Contemporary Art Free Workshops (Alexey Korsi’s workshop). She is currently a resident at the studio UNTITLED_609. She lives and works in Moscow.