June 9 – August 11, 1984
Russian Samizdat Art show, curated by Rimma and Valery Gerlovin, is a traveling exhibition that started in New York (Franklin Furnace Gallery) in 1982 and was presented in many cities in the USA and Canada (Washington DC, Rochester, Richmond, Vancouver, Seattle, Pittsburg).
The show includes about 100 works by 30 Russian artists, who are living in the Soviet Union, the U.S. and Europe. “Samizdat”, or self-published bookworks, is a new creative phenomenon that was born underground as a result of circumstances of Russian culture and later spread to other countries of the Eastern bloc. The whole independent art movement in contemporary Russia has this symbolic Samizdat spirit, which implies non-conformist efforts to circumvent official censorship. All works done in Russia were smuggled into the U.S. The repressive social situation leads to a binding force in the art and poetry community and acts as a stimulus for creativity.
The curators of this exhibition, artists Rimma and Valery Gerlovin, who are former active participants of this movement in Russia, now live and work in New York. Their late works reveal the double experience of living in two different super-power countries. Every time this exhibition travels, they create an environment with the works that is particularly suited to each gallery.
