Andrei Monastyrski

Andrei Viktorovich Monastyrski is an author, poet, artist and art theorist, one of the leaders of the Moscow Conceptualist movement along with Ilya Kabakov.

Life and work

Andrei Sumnin was born in 1949 in the town of Pechenga in Murmansk Oblast.
After graduating in Philology from Lomonosov Moscow State University, he got his first job as an editor in the Moscow Literature Museum. In 1973, he made his first serial structures and minimalist audio compositions, before turning to poetic objects and actions in 1975. One of the founding members of Collective Actions, he initiated most of the group’s projects and documented them in their Trips to the Countryside. Andrei Monastyrski was among the core participants of the Apt Art movement and the Moscow-based Club of Avant-Garde Artists, and has taken part in many exhibitions in Russia and abroad. Several of his articles on the theory of contemporary art have been published by Russian and international journals.
In 2003, he received Andrei Bely Prize for his contribution to Russian literature. He was granted Soratnik Prize in 2008, and Innovation Prize the following year.
In 1975-77 he made a series of works under the general name Elementary Poems. This series of books and actions anticipated the aesthetics of Collective Actions, which was formed in 1976.
Since 1980 Andrei Monastyrski has edited a number of volumes documenting Collective Actions’ Trips to the Countryside.
In 1981, he edited the first issue of the Moscow Archive of New Art. From 1986 to 1990 he coedited four MANI issues with Joseph Backstein and one more with Sabine Hänsgen.
In 2008-2009 he was a member of KAPITON group with Vadim Zakharov and Yuri Leiderman.
In 2011, Andrei Monastyrski and Collective Actions represented Russia at the Venice Biennale.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2014 — Carriers, XL Gallery, Moscow
2013 — Andrei Monastyrski, Charim Galerie, Vienna
2012 — Andrei Monastyrski and Collective Actions. Trips out of Town . Regina Gallery, London
2011 — Andrei Monastyrski and Collective Actions. e-flux, New York
2011 — Empty Zones. Andrei Monastyrski and Collective Actions. The 54th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Russian Pavilion, Venice
2011 — Out of Town: Andrei Monastyrski & Collective Actions. Performa, New York
2010 — Andrei Monastyrski. Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Victoria Foundation — the Art of being Contemporary, Moscow
2008 — Andrei Monastyrski. Kunstihoone, Tallinn
2005 — Ground Works. Stella Art Gallery, Moscow
2000 — The 70s and Other Works. Navicula Artis, Saint Petersburg
1998 — Gosagroprom, Obscuri Viri, Moscow
1998 — The 70s. Feldkirch, Austria
1997 — Branch. XL Gallery, Moscow

Selected Group Exhibitions

2011 — Ostalgia. New Museum, New York
2007 — The 52nd International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Venice
2007 — documenta 12, Kassel
2003 — The 50th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Venice
2000 — Art of the 20th Century, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
2000 — L'autre moitié de l'Europe, Jeu de Paume, Paris
1999 — Global Conceptualism. Queens Museum of Art, New York
1999 — Kunst im Untergrund, Albertina, Vienna
1998 — Out of Actions, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
1998 — Praprintium, Berlin — Bremen
1997 — Collective Actions, Exit Art, New York
1993 — The 45th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Venice
Sowjetische Kunst um 1990, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
1977 — The 38th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Venice