Pavel Pepperstein

Born 1966 in Moscow, Russia, Pavel Pepperstein lives and works in Kiev, Ukraine and Moscow, Russia. Pavel Pepperstein is one of the most influential artists of the new generation in Russia.

In 1987, he cofounded the experimental artists group Inspection Medical Hermeneutics, which, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, developed a critical approach toward the influence of Western culture on Russia. Unlike the generally euphoric mood of the day, with its emphasis on the new, these artists created a complex, autistically shaped system of forms and language that critically examined the infiltration of Western influences.

For a collective exhibition in 2008, Pavel Pepperstein reacted to the alleged set of entrepreneurial values from Credit Suisse with the manifestation of two values. He thus created two drawings. Both depict a vast landscape with tiny people moving about in the foreground and a line of mountains in the background. The primal geometrical forms hover over the sceneries like humorous religious icons and are of a purported naivete, which is aligned to the tone of children’s books. Each drawing carries one central big word, again crayoned with lovable diligence: Basis and Hope. Both terms are not actual values. Nevertheless they outline a certain understanding at the core of the values in question. Basis is the foundation of Family, Knowledge and Network, whereas Hope is the driver for Vision and Social Responsibility. In other words: Basis and hope fuel the values cherished by the entrepreneur. Without a basis, without hope, life and business are not manageable.

Pepperstein’s work has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions, such as the First Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art, the Moscow Conceptualists at the Kupferstich-
kabinett, Berlin, Berlin / Moscow at the Martin Gropius Building in Berlin, and many others. In 2007 a special representation of his work was held at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver and the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Basel.

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