An original artist and thinker, Dmitry Gutov is in conversation with Andrey Kovalev.
Dmitry Gutov is an artist and theorist who has initiated a number of research projects exploring the history and theory of contemporary art as well as contemporary art practices. He studied at Repin St. Peterburg State Academy Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Since the 1990s, his work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale (1995, 2013), Istanbul Biennial (1992) and in over a hundred solo and group exhibitions, including in some of the first contemporary art galleries in Russia—the squat gallery in Trekhprudny Lane, Regina Gallery and Marat Guelman Gallery among other spaces. Gutov’s body of work includes paintings, installations, photographs and video art, as well as metal sculptures, which have become his trademark since 2007. For example, Portraits of Composers and Rembrandt’s Drawings are wire objects that seem figurative from one angle and abstract from any other. Gutov has been studying the legacy of the Soviet philosopher and cultural theorist Mikhail Lifshitz and in 1994 was one of the organizers of Mikhail Lifshitz Institute in Moscow. Together with David Riff, Dmitry Gutov is currently working on If our soup can could speak… Mikhail Lifshitz and the Soviet Sixties, one of Garage’s Field Research projects.
