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Slava Mogutin & Brian Kenny 2011

SLAVA MOGUTIN & BRIAN KENNY

INTERPENETRATION

PHOTOGRAPHS & DRAWINGS

SEPTEMBER 2 – OCTOBER 2, 2011

Proudly sponsored by DIRTY-MAG.COM (New York), CKCU 93.1 FM & MERCURY Lounge (Ottawa)

INTERPENETRATION

Slava Mogutin is the best kind of artist – the kind who creates because he needs to, and who painstakingly develops an aesthetic to express that need. Starting out as a poet in his teenage years, he wrote beautiful, angry poems in Russian that came deep from the heart of his motherland. Later kicked out of Russia by authorities for his “exceptional cynicism” and “extreme insolence”, Mogutin ended up an exile in America and, being forced to abandon his mother tongue, switched to a purely visual art form – photography – as a creative outlet. His early photographs were more abstract, but he soon also started to experiment with portraiture and photo journalism. His work now easily and playfully vacillates between the two, but the poetry always remains.

Brian Kenny, Slava’s partner in love and art, entered the picture about seven years ago. A prodigious young talent in his own right, Brian soon joined forces with Slava to become a collaborative art duo called SUPERM. This auspicious conjunction has added new dimensions to their work, including shared drawings, sculptural products, videos, and site-specific installations. While Slava and Brian both pursue their own art careers individually, SUPERM allows them to broaden their palette and produce work that synthesizes their styles and practices: a force to be reckoned with!

Bruce LaBruce, Toronto, 2011

New York-based partners-in-art Slava Mogutin and Brian Kenny work separately across various media, as well as collaboratively under the umbrella of SUPERM, a multimedia art team creating site-specific gallery and museum installations worldwide.

Mogutin has attracted international attention with his raw and candid urban portraiture documenting various youth subcultures and fetishes, collected in his critically acclaimed monograph Lost Boys (powerHouse Books, NY, 2006), as well as his writings and Russian translations of Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Dennis Cooper. In his more recent work Mogutin merges the performance-based practices and event- based art, mapping his work from live event to visual object through photographs that serve as documentation/témoignage.

This intersection of exhibitionism/exhibition in turn creates its own series of pairings, joining the intensely personal (orgasm) with the overtly theatrical, the performer with our presence as voyeurs, the artist as (self) recorder and as witness. The sense of trace or residue is not only manifest in the fact of making the images themselves but also in the small details of the performances that they contain: the classic cum shot, a jockstrap left in a sink, bondage gear.

In contrast to Mogutin’s photographs, Kenny’s drawings and engravings demonstrate a very distinct stylistic approach. Working in a spontaneous or stream-of-consciousness manner and influenced by the energy and spirit of street art, Kenny layers imagery, deconstructs text and references from pop culture and sports to create a kind of brut expressionist panorama that oscillates between autobiography, social commentary and the absurd.

This exhibition explores themes of INTERPENETRATION from multiple perspectives: a physical intersection of separate bodies of work addressing the give-and-take dynamic of Mogutin and Kenny as artists and lovers; as a power exchange of dominance and submission (wrestling, S+M, cock fighting) and the referencing of “cock” as both male organ and bird (according to Mogutin, “cock” (petúkh) is Russian prison slang for “faggot”).

Both artists also navigate shifting boundaries of geographical and cultural transplantation. In this sense, INTERPENETRATION addresses the fluidity of identity, where sexual becomes political and vice versa. The title also references Mogutin’s forced emigration from Russia in the wake of two highly publicized obscenity cases, carrying a potential prison sentence of up to seven years. He was granted political asylum in the United States with the support of Amnesty International and PEN American Center.

– Guy Berube, curator & director, La Petite Mort Gallery, 2011

BRIAN KENNY

Brian Kenny is a NY based multimedia artist exhibited in galleries, museums and alternative venues in the US, Canada, Russia, Israel and across Europe. In 2004 Kenny began collaborating with Slava Mogutin as SUPERM. His work in fashion includes commissions for Walter Van Beirendonck, Petrou\Man, Max Kibardin for Bruno Magli, and Matthias Vriens-McGrath for TVTOR Magazine.

SLAVA MOGUTIN

Slava Mogutin is a New York-based Russian artist and author, who works across different media, including photography, video, text, performance, sculpture, and painting.

Born in Siberia, in the industrial city of Kemerovo, Mogutin moved to Moscow at age 14. He soon began working as a journalist and editor for the first independent Russian papers, publishers and radio stations. By the age of 21, he had gained both critical acclaim and official condemnation for his outspoken queer writings. Accused of “open and deliberate contempt for generally accepted moral norms”; “malicious hooliganism with exceptional cynicism and extreme insolence”; “inflaming social, national, and religious division”; “propaganda of brutal violence, psychic pathology, and sexual perversions”—he became the target of two highly publicized criminal cases, carrying a potential prison sentence of up to seven years. Forced to leave Russia, he was granted political asylum in the US with the support of Amnesty International and PEN American Center.

Upon his arrival in New York City, Mogutin shifted his focus to visual art and became an active member of the downtown art scene. Mogutin’s photography and multimedia work has been exhibited internationally, including P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Museum of Art and Design in New York, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston, Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen, The Haifa Museum of Art in Israel, and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon (MUSAC) in Spain. In 2004, together with his partner-collaborator Brian Kenny, he co-founded SUPERM, a multimedia art team responsible for site-specific gallery and museum shows in the US and across Europe.

Mogutin is the author of two hardcover monographs of photography, Lost Boys and NYC Go-Go (powerHouse Books, 2006 and 2008), and seven books of writings published in Russian. He is the winner of the prestigious Andrey Bely Prize for Poetry (2000). His poetry, fiction, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies in eight languages. He has translated into Russian Allen Ginsberg’s poetry, William S. Burroughs’ essays and Dennis Cooper’s fiction. As an actor Slava appeared in Bruce LaBruce’s Skin Flick (1999) and Laura Colella’s independent feature Stay Until Tomorrow (2004). He’s currently at work on his third book of photography, Panoramic View.

BIO & CV.

1974 Born in Kemerovo, Siberia, Russia.

1995 Exiled from Russia and granted political asylum in the US; moved to New York City.

2004 Together with Brian Kenny formed SUPERM, a multimedia art team.

SELECTED SOLO SHOWS

2010

Lost Boys, La Fresh Gallery, Madrid (traveling exhibition).

2009

Food Chain, envoy enterprises, NYC.

Lost Boys, Galeria Pauza, Krakow, Poland; Galerie Terre Rouge, Kulturfabrik, Esch, Luxembourg (traveling exhibition).

2008

White Is Dirty When Ugly (with Brian Kenny), envoy enterprises, NYC.

SPUTNIK 3 (as SUPERM with Gio Black Peter), Galleri S.E, Bergen, Norway.

2007

Slava Mogutin and Justin Beal, Bortolami Gallery, NYC.

But Her Majesty’s Roastbeef Curtains Wouldn’t Open For Him (as SUPERM), Blow de la Barra Gallery, London.

SUPERM Toilet #2 (as SUPERM), White Cubicle Toilet Gallery, George and Dragon Public House, London.

2006

Slava Mogutin: Photography and Video, Allmänna Galleriet 925, Stockholm.

2005

Wiggers in Berlin (as SUPERM), Galerie Deschler, Berlin.

Belyi Negr (Wigger) (as SUPERM), Regina Gallery, Moscow.

2004

No Love, RARE Gallery, NYC.

2003

Lost Boys, RARE Gallery, NYC.

Selected Group Shows, Installations AND FILM FESTIVALS

2011

For Love Not Money, The 15th Tallinn Triennial, KUMU Estonian Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia; curated by Simon Rees (upcoming).

 

2010

The Infidels, La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa, Canada; curated by Guy Berube (upcoming).

Streeple, Kunstraum Richard Sorge, Berlin; curated by Paulus Fugers (upcoming).

50 Ways To Keep Your Lover, Galleri S.E, Bergen, Norway (upcoming).

Transitional Object (with Uri Gershuni), P.O.B. Art Center, Jerusalem, Israel; curated by Simon Krantz, Sagit Mezamer, and Yael Ruhman (upcoming).

T MINUS 20, Christopher Henry Gallery, NYC; curated by Jason LeBlond and Ves Pitts.

Identity Lab, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Voies-Off 2010, Galerie La Vitrine, Arles, France (catalog).

Because We Are, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas; curated by Tim Gonzalez (catalog).

Mea Culpa (as SUPERM), Queer Zagreb, Croatia.

White Snuff, Museum Man, Ackerkeller Berlin; curated by Adam Nankervis.

Postcards From the Edge: The 12th Annual Visual AIDS Benefit Exhibition, ZieherSmith, NYC.

2009

Summer Drunk Tank, City Art Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand; curated by Young Sun Han.

MAD Paperball, Museum of Art and Design, NYC.

Marios DIK, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland, and Ground Level Gallery/Jeanettes, London; curated by Karol Radziszewski.

Love For Sale, New York Art Book Fair, P.S.1/MoMA Contemporary Art Center, Queens, NY; curated by Billy Miller.

Lyst (Lust), Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen; curated by Tomas Lagermand Lundme and Mathias Kryger.

Don’t Worry It’s Only Money, City Art Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand; curated by Young Sun Han (catalog).

Turn On, Slag Gallery, NYC; curated by Özkan Cangüven.

BUTT in ASS (as SUPERM), Asia Song Society, NYC; curated by Michael Bullock and Yasmine Dubois.

Foot Soldiers, envoy enterprises, NYC; curated by Nicolas Wagner and CRUSH Fanzine.

The Hydra School Projects 10th Anniversary Show, Hydra Island, Greece; curated by Dimitrios Antonitsis.

23rd Festival MIX Milano (as SUPERM), Piccolo Teatro Strehler, Italy.

Gay Men Play, New York Photo Festival ’09, Brooklyn, NY; curated by Chris Boot.

Screwball Asses, The Company Gallery, Los Angeles; curated by Hedi El Kholti and David Jones.

Visions of Excess (as SUPERM), SPILL Festival of Performance, London; curated by Ron Athey and Lee Adams.

Investigating Desire, The 23rd London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (as SUPERM).

Get a Rope, CTRL Gallery, Houston, Texas; curated by Kathy Grayson.

History of Violence (as SUPERM), The Haifa Museum of Art, Israel; curated by Hadas Maor (catalog).

A Trip Down (False) Memory Lane, The Lexington Club, San Francisco; curated by Jessica Silverman.

Off Zinegoak, 6th Zinegoak, Bilbao International GLT Film Festival, Spain (as SUPERM).

Postcards From the Edge: The 11th Annual Visual AIDS Benefit Exhibition, Metro Pictures, NYC.

2008

It Ain’t Fair, O.H.W.O.W. (Our House West of Wynwood), The Art Basel Miami satellite group show curated by Tim Barber, Kathy Grayson, Andreas Melas, Dan Nadel, Pablo de la Barra, Nicola Vassell and Terence Koh.

Ossuary: Works on paper collected by Alex Rose, The Black Mariah, Cork, Ireland.

Artist-Initiated Magazines, Galleri Rekord, Oslo; curated by Karen Christine Tandberg and Elin Maria Olaussen.

Straight to Hell – In Cock We Trust, Exile, Berlin; curated by Billy Miller.

My Gay Eye, Werkstattgalerie, Berlin; curated by Rinaldo Hopf.

___In A Box, Canco Factory, Jersey City, New Jersey; curated by Billy Miller.

On the Obscene (as SUPERM), Queer Lisboa 12: The 12th Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival; curated by Manuela Kay (catalog).

Power and Currency (with Brian Kenny), Factory Fresh, Brooklyn, NY; curated by Natalie Kates.

I Want a Little Sugar In My Bowl, Asia Song Society, NYC; curated by Anat Ebgi, Terence Koh, and Jenny Schlenzka.

Homoccult & Other Esoterotica (as SUPERM), Collective Unconscious, NYC; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Outfest 2008: The 26th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

The Artist as Publisher, The Center for Book Arts, NYC; curated by Scott Hug and Billy Miller (catalog).

AA Bronson Loves Video Art (as SUPERM), as part of Plot, Engage, Disperse: Pride Toronto’s contemporary art exhibit curated by Daryl Vocat, Norman Jewison Park, Toronto.

Forbidden Acts (as SUPERM), NewFest 2008: The 20th Anniversary NY LGBT Film Festival NYC; curated by Cameron Yates (catalog).

The Left Hand of Darkness, The Project, NYC; curated by Sarvia Jasso and Yasmine Dubois.

Watermill Benefit Highlights, Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation, Brooklyn, NY.

The Hustle, The powerHouse Arena, Brooklyn, NY; curated by Sara Rosen.

Da Sodoma a Hollywood (as SUPERM), The 23rd Torino International GLBT Film Festival, Italy (catalog).

The Other Side, The 58 Gallery, Jersey City, New Jersey; curated by Billy Miller.

Sex Is So Abstract (as SUPERM), V-Tape, Toronto; curated by John Paul Ricco.

2007

Postcards From The Edge: The 10th Annual Visual AIDS Benefit Exhibition, James Cohan Gallery, NYC.

Homoccult & Other Esoterotica (as SUPERM), MIX NYC 20: The 20th New York Queer Experimental Film Festival; curated by Daniel McKernan and Richie Rennt (catalog).

Fetiches, Galería Alonso Vidal, Barcelona, Spain; curated by Stephane Breysse.

Mein Schwules Auge 4, Werkstattgalerie, Berlin; curated by Rinaldo Hopf.

Revolution & Sexual Revolution Film Festival (as SUPERM), Uplink Factory, Shibuya, Tokyo; curated by Akihiro Suzuki.

Showing Shame: Shameless Showing (as SUPERM), Telic Arts Exchange, Los Angeles; curated by Robert Summers.

BodyPoliticX (as SUPERM), Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; curated by Florian Waldvogel (catalog).

The Cowboy and The Pegasus (as SUPERM), Queer Fest Midwest, Pulaski Park Fieldhouse, Chicago; curated by Rejnowska & Polera.

Re-Visions of Excess (as SUPERM), Fierce Festival, Birmingham, UK; curated by Ron Athey and Lee Adams.

Sex Work: The Museum As Brothel; Art House As Porn House (as SUPERM), Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Kinomuseum, Oberhausen, Germany; curated by AA Bronson (catalog).

Love Addiction: Practices in Video Art from ’61 to the Present (as SUPERM), Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy; curated by Andrea Bruciati (catalog).

The Male Gaze, The powerHouse Arena, Brooklyn, NY; curated by Nicholas Weist.

The Brotherhood, Neon Parc, Melbourne, and Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), Sydney; curated by Shannon Michael Cane.

2006

SEXPERIMENTAL: Un Programme Transpédégouines (as SUPERM), FFGLP 2006: 12e Festival de Films Gays & Lesbiens de Paris; curated by Philippe Donadini, Florence Fradelizi and Tom de Pekin.

1.PornfilmfestivalBerlin (as SUPERM), Short Film Competition (2nd Prize), Berlin; curated by Jurgen Brunning (catalog).

No Sleep ’til Brooklyn: A powerHouse Hip Hop Retrospective, The powerHouse Arena, Brooklyn, NY; curated by Sara Rosen.

Globos Sonda/Trial Balloons (as SUPERM), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), León, Spain; curated by Octavio Zaya, Yuko Hasegawa, and Agustín Pérez Rubio (catalog).

Mein Schwules Auge 3 (“My Gay Eye”), Schwules Museum, Berlin, and Galeria Carmen De La Guerra, Madrid; curated by Rinaldo Hopf.

SUPERM Salon (as SUPERM), Fritz Haeg’s Sundown Salon Series, Los Angeles; curated by Slava Mogutin and Brian Kenny.

Retro, Angell Gallery, Toronto; curated by Jamie Angell.

2005            

With Us Against Reality, or Against Us! Willy Wonka Inc., Oslo, and Galleri s.e, Bergen, Norway; curated by Anders Nordby and Ida Ekblad (catalog).

Log Cabin (as SUPERM), Artists Space, NYC; curated by Jeffrey Uslip.

Post-Diaspora­­­: Voyages and Missions, 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow; curated by Olga Kopenkina (catalog).

They Shoot Homos, Don’t They? Midsumma Festival, Central Station records, Melbourne, Australia; curated by Shannon Michael Cane.

2004

Russian Artists in New York, ISCP 10th Anniversary Weekend, International Studio and Curatorial Program, NYC; curated by Tatiana Volkova.

Phiiliip: Divided by Lightning, Deitch Projects, Brooklyn, NY; curated by John Connelly.

BlackBook: 25 Artists Interpret Fashion, Deitch Projects, NYC; curated by BlackBook Magazine.

Sublime Audacity – The Stroller’s Experience, Galeria Luis Serpa Projectos, Lisbon, and Maus Habitos, Porto, Portugal (catalog).

PREMAculTURE, P.S.1 School, Hydra Island, Greece; curated by Dimitrios Antonitsis (catalog).

The Collector’s Cabinet, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles; curated by Simon Watson/Scenic.

The Hunt for Your Family, V-1, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Odd Number, Stockholm, Sweden; curated by Loyal Magazine.

Sexy Beasts: An Exploration of Sex and Sexuality in Art from 1964 – Present, Ethan Cohen Fine Art, NYC; curated by Robert Knafo.

2003

Kult 48 Klubhouse, Deitch Projects, Brooklyn, NY; curated by Scott Hug.

Snapshot Now, Angell Gallery, Toronto; curated by Randy Gladman.

Kult 48, FIAC, Paris Expo; curated by Scott Hug.

What About New York? A New New York Scene, Galerie du Jour agnès b., Paris; curated by Scott Hug.

Corporate Profits Vs. Labor Costs, Now Playing, D’Amelio Terras, NYC; curated by John Connelly.

Fox and His Friends: New Millennium Post-Gay Photography (With Fangs), Garfield Artworks, Pittsburgh; curated by Edgar Um Bucholtz.

Angst, RARE Gallery, NYC; curated by Peter Surace.

K48’s Daag Ons Niet Uit (‘Do Not Provoke Us’), Magazin, Maastricht, the Netherlands; curated by Scott Hug.

K48’s New Stray Prophets, The Stray Show, Chicago; curated by Scott Hug.

Visions of Excess: A Tribute to Georges Bataille, Club Demon, Birmingham, UK; curated by Ron Athey and Vaginal Davis.

~scopeNewYork, Dylan Hotel, NYC (catalog).

2002

K48 Teenage Rebel – The Bedroom Show, John Connelly Presents, NYC; curated by Scott Hug.

The Armory Photography Show, Javits Center, NYC.

Platinum Oasis, La Terra Vista Dalla Luna: A Tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Coral Sands Motel, Los Angeles; curated by Ron Athey and Vaginal Davis.

Small Works, Mimi Ferzt Gallery, NYC; curated by Christine Sperber.

2001

The Muses, Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, NYC; curated by Reed Massengill.

2000

Other Works, Regina Gallery, Moscow.

3rd Moscow Photo Biennale, Central House of Artists, Moscow; curated by Olga Sviblova (catalog).

Selected Performances and collaborations

2010

Vaginal Davis is Speaking From the Diaphragm (with Vaginal Davis), PS 122, NYC.

Gelitin: The Happening of Blind Sculpture (with Gelitin), Greene Naftali Gallery, NYC.

2009

Manpurse IV: Assembly Line, organized by j. morrison (with Scott Hug, Michael Magnan, j. morrison, Dave Ortega, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Dave Ulrich, and Grant Worth), New York Art Book Fair, P.S.1/MoMA Contemporary Art Center, Queens, NY.

Hygiene: A Piece of Instant Theater (with Brian Kenny), directed by Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich, produced by Maria Baibakova, Deitch Projects, NYC.

2008

Shaking Angles (with Andrey Bartenev and Brian Kenny), The National Arts Club, NYC.

2006

Jockstrap Dawgz in Heat, Christopher Street Day Fair, Berlin.

2003

assume vivid astro focus VII (with assume vivid astro focus), Deitch Projects, NYC.

Anarchist Wrestling (with Bruce LaBruce), The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA.

The Trials of Gilles de Rais (with Bruce LaBruce), Visions of Excess, Club Demon, Birmingham, UK.

2002

The Ladder of Red (with Andrey Bartenev and Christopher Knowles), The Red Night: 9th Annual Watermill Benefit, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, Southampton, Long Island, NY.

Porcile (with Bruce LaBruce), Platinum Oasis, The Coral Sands Motel, Los Angeles.

Toilet Reading, Remote Lounge, NYC.

Mayakovsky Night, Mimi Ferzt Gallery, NYC.

2001

Kabul Olympics (with Sergey Bratkov), Passage Gallery, Moscow.

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