Igor Ponosov (b. 1980)

An artist, curator and researcher focused on Urban Art. Author of books: Art and the city (Russian: Искусство и город) and Russian Urban Art: History and Conflicts. Laureate of The Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award (St Petersburg). 

Between 2005 and 2009 he published three books on street art in Russia and the ex-USSR. From 2011 to 2013 he curated The Wall a project based in the CCA Winzavod, Moscow. In 2011 he founded the Partizaning art project as a platform for exchange among activists, artists and urbanists. From 2013 to 2016 he curated Delai Sam festival, which focused on grassroots iniatives and activism in Russia. Igor is author of the book Art and the city (2016), for which he received The Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award 2016 for Best Text on Contemporary Art (St. Petersburg), in 2019 he was nominated with the book to Kandinsky prize in Moscow. In 2017 he was curating of group show and lab in Berlin, which have been focused on Urban Art and activism of Eastern Europe. In 2018 Igor wrote and published Russian Urban Art: History and Conflicts book, which has been launched in Tartu, Besancon, Paris, Helsinki, Krakow, Berlin, Freiburg and Weil-am-Rhein. 

Since 2005 I have published many books focused on Urban Art and Activism. Here is the full list. 

Contacts:
iponosov@gmail.com

Art works available to purchase:
Syntax Gallery, Moscow.
COLAB Gallery, Weil-am-Rhein, Germany.
TEO by COSMOSCOW, Moscow.

Solo shows:

• 2021 — Cutting the Walls. Ural branch of Pushkin Museum, Yekaterinburg.
• 2021 — Participant Observation. Syntax Gallery, Moscow.
• 2020 — Cutting the Walls. CCI Fabrika, Moscow.
• 2018 — Is It Dangerous To Take A Shower During A Thunderstorm? Coat gallery, Miami.
• 2017 — GARAGE L6 #17. GARAGE L6, Freiburg.
• 2016 — The Thaw. In collaboration with Brad Downey. CCI Fabrika, Moscow.

Selected group shows and festivals:

• 2021 — 2МАП. Exhibition space at Zaryadie park, Moscow.
• 2020 — rePlastic. Electromuseum, Moscow.
• 2019 — Post-Posters. Syndicat Potentiel, Strasbourg.
• 2019 — The Absurd. Candid Arts Trust space, London.
• 2018 — Bien Urbain Festival. Besancon.
• 2018 — Habitat Happy. Neurotitan Gallery, Berlin.
• 2018 — Partizaning: Participatory Urban Replanning. Nosna Gallery, Krakow.
• 2018 — Meine Strasse? Моя Улица?
  August Bebel Institut, Berlin.
• 2017 — Nuart Festival. Stavanger.
• 2017 — Russische Kulturtage Festival. Freiburg.
• 2017 — Cultural Hijack.
  International School of Architecture ARCHIP, Prague.
• 2017 — Hand luggage only. Nuart Gallery, Stavanger.
• 2016 — XXI Triennale di Milano International. Exposition EXPERIENCE (Ex Expo Area), Milano.
• 2016 — Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries.
  Street Art Museum, Saint Petersburg.
• 2016 — Life o’ Banner.
  Cracow Gallery Weekend KRAKERS, Krakow.
• 2015 — Russland vs. Russland Kulturkonflikte.
  Studio 1 Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin.
• 2015 — 2nd International Award for Public Art.
  Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland.
• 2014 — global aCtIVISm. the ZKM, Karlsruhe.
• 2014 — 11. Garage Museum, Moscow.
• 2013 — The 10th Sao Paulo Architecture Biennale.
  SESC, Sao-Paolo.
• 2013 — Art-Ovrag Festival. Vyksa.
• 2013 — Barents Spectacle. Kirkenes.
• 2013 — Cooperation territory.
  16th LINE Gallery, Rostov-on-Don.
• 2012 — Sobyanin, baby, c’mon!
  Vostochnaya Gallery, Moscow.
• 2012 — The Wall. Winzavod, Moscow.
• 2008 — Art about Mortality.
  M-Gallery, Rostov-on-Don.
• 2006 — Street Art. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Awards/Grants/Residencies:

• 2021 — 2th Moscow Art Prize (long-list)
• 2019 — 12th Kandinsky prize (short-list).
  BREUS Foundation, Moscow.
• 2019 — Fabrika studios. Session VI.
  CCI Fabrika, Moscow.
• 2017 — Gastatelier im Kunsthaus L6.
  Das Kulturamt der Stadt Freiburg, Freiburg.
• 2016 — 8th Sergey Kuryokhin prize.
  Sergey Kuryokhin art center, St. Petersburg.
• 2016 — Living Alive.
  NCCA Arsenal, Nizhny Novgorod.
• 2014 — Coal Prize (short-list). Paris.
• 2014 — Arts Leadership Fellows.
  CEC ArtsLink, New York.
• 2014 — Discover Eliava.
  GeoAIR Art Residency, Tbilisi.
• 2012–2013 — The program in support Russian artists. MCA Garage, Moscow.

My Books:

• 2021 — Art and the City, second edition.
• 2020 — Cutting the Walls.
• 2019 — Encyclopedia of Russian Street Art
  (co-author, editor).
• 2018 — Russian Urban Art: History and Conflicts.
• 2018 — Delai Sam: grass-roots and activism from ex-USSR (co-author, chief editor).
• 2018 — Street Art Museum: A permanent collection №1. 2013–2018 (co-author, chief editor).
• 2017 — RECLAIM, RECODE, REINVENT: Urban Art and Activism in Eastern Europe (co-author, chief editor).
• 2016 — Art and the city.
• 2015 — Switchie/Switchie (co-author).
• 2005–2008 — Objects № 1–3 (co-author, publisher).

My books in Libraries:

• Garage Museum, Moscow, Russia
• MMOMA, Education center, Moscow, Russia
• Ruarts Foundation, Moscow, Russia
• UCL, University College London, London, UK
• The British Library, St. Pancras, London, UK
• University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Van Pelt Library, Philadelphia, US
• Cornell University Library, Ithaca, US
• Duke University Libraries, Perkins Library, Durham, US
• University of Washington Libraries, Seattle, US 
• UC Berkeley Libraries, Berkeley, US
• Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, US
• Harvard University, Fine Arts Library, Cambridge, US
• Yale University Library, New Haven, US
• Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, US
• Princeton University Library, Princeton, US
• New York University, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, US
• New York Public Library System, New York, US
• Columbia University in the City of New York, US
• Library of Congress, Washington, US
• University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, US
• University of Chicago Library, Chicago, US
• Indiana University, Bloomington, US
• Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Bibliothek, München, Germany
• Bibliothek der Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• Bibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München, Germany
• Bibliothek der Fachhochschule Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
• Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
• Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg, Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany
• Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Strasbourg, Strasbourg Cedex, France
• Monash University Library, Clayton, Australia

Curation:

• 2021 — Public Library. Ruarts Foundation, Moscow.
• 2017, 2018 — Graffiti in the Internet age.
  Electromuseum, Moscow.
  Street art Museum, St. Petersburg.
• 2017 — New Urban Reality.
  CLB Gallery, Berlin.
• 2015 — ЦЕХ. CCC Smena, Kazan.
• 2015 — Urban Exploration.
  Moscow Urban Forum, Manege, Moscow.
• 2013–2015 — Delai Sam.
  Zil, Flacon, Moscow.
• 2010–2013 — The Wall. Winzavod, Moscow.
• 2008 — Russian Street Art is Dead.
  M’ARS Gallery, Moscow.

Selected links:

• Russian Urban Art: Poetry, Philosophy, and Manifestos in the Streets. Brooklyn Street Art, 2021.
• Igor Ponosov enlightens with ‘Russian Urban Art: History and Conflicts‘. Brooklyn Street Art, 2018.
• Interviews: Igor Ponosov. Arrested Motion, 2017.
• Igor Ponosov Taking Muralism to a New Level on the Fjords of Norway. Widewalls, 2017.
• Rebirth of Russian Street art during the protest movement. Nuartjournal, 2017.
• Artful dodgers: urban interventionists Partizaning are taking back the streets. Calvert Journal, 2013.

—
Portrait by Stas Dobry.
notfoundgallery, Moscow, 2018.