Artist, writer and critic Pavel Pepperstein visits art historian Andrey Kovalev at Garage.
Pavel Pepperstein (b.1966 in Moscow) graduated from The Academy of Fine Arts, Prague in 1987. The son of the famous artist Viktor Pivovarov and poet Irina Pivovarova, he joined the Moscow Conceptualist circle as an original author and leader of a number of novel initiatives. In the late 1980s, Pepperstein formed the Inspection Medical Hermeneutics group and began exhibiting in Russia, as well as Europe. Since early 1990s, he has published essays on contemporary art issues, and has written several books, including the iconic Mifogennaya Lubov Kast (Mythogenic Love of Castes, two volumes, 1999 and 2002, with co-author Sergey Anufriev) and Tolkovanie Snovidenij (The Interpretation of Dreams, 2005, together with Viktor Mazin). Pepperstein’s artworks are in major museum—The State Russian Museum, The State Tretyakov Gallery—and private collections, while the artist travels extensively across Russia and Europe. One of his most critically acclaimed projects was City of Russia (2007–2008), exhibited at Moscow’s Regina Gallery. Author and theorist of “psychedelic realism”, Pepperstein shares left-wing political views, entailing the critique of capitalism and aestheticization of politics.
