Sergey Popov
«Initially a gallery acts as a ‘general intermediary’ between all participants of the art system, it’s a kind of hub, where all their efforts are gathered. In one way or another, most of the pieces of art find their home with the help of these art system participants, these works can be sent to the following places: exhibition, biennale, museum, auction, or to a collector» (an excerpt from the interview with Sergey Popov, The Logos Journal, philosophical literary magazine)
«What I cannot stand - is stereotyped collecting. Besides the fact of investment, collecting is also a vast field for imagination. And as for the investment component, regarding this point you can always be consulted by specialists» (Sergey Popov, ARTinvestment.RU)
«Contemporary art in its best examples is shrunk, reduced to a minimum, and it is completely ruthless to an external audience and sometimes even to professionals. But this is what art is» (an excerpt from the interview with Sergei Popov, Logos, philosophical and literary magazine)
Art critic, art historian, curator, the founder and the director of the “Pop / off / art” gallery, teacher of the contemporary art history.
Sergei Popov has created one of the most influential galleries of contemporary art in Russia (it is in the Top 500 of the best galleries in the world according to the ARTINFO). Popov colloborated with leading Russian museums, such as: the Hermitage, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the National Center for Contemporary Art and others. The branch of his gallery in Berlin was opened by the exhibition of the Petersburg artist Gregory Maiofis “Lessons of the Russian” in 2012.
An artist for Popov is first of all the one who has something to say in art. That’s why Sergey prefers to exhibit “classical contemporary art” in his gallery, meaning pieces of art, supported by context, reflecting their time and entering into a dialogue with other eras.
Sergey Popov published more than 200 articles on contemporary art and wrote a book "Always other art. The History of Contemporary Russian Art ", which is one of the first experiences in the research of the 60-year history of informal domestic visual art. Sergey gives lessons of the history of contemporary art and the “Art market and the art system” discipline, “Investments in art”, “Pricing in contemporary art” in the state higher education institutions and private higher education schools in Russia.
Selected projects:
2003 — “Moscow Abstraction: The Second Half of the 20th Century.” The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Co-curator.
2004 — “Mikhail Roginsky. Then and Now. The State Russian Museum, Saint-Petersburg. Curator.
2005-2006 — “Revision of material”. The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Co-curator.
2010 — “Always Other Art.Selected works from the collection of Viktor Bondarenko”. Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Curator.
2011 — “The Maximum Exclusions” Olga and Oleg Tatarintsev. The Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Curator.
2011 — “New Sculpture: chaos and structure”. The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Saint Petersburg. Curator.
2012 — “Vitaly Pushnitsky «Mechanisms of Time”. The Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Curator.
2013 — “Straightlook: contemporary photography from Eastern Europe”. The “Pop/off/art” gallery, Berlin. Curator.
2014 — “ZHI (ART) / VI (VIDEO): art and video in relationship”. Solyanka Video Performance Animation. Moscow. Curator.
2014 — “Erik Bulatov. I Live — I See.” Moscow Manege. Curator.
2015 — “Nikolay Kasatkin. Looking Back. Retrospective. 2015–1948.” New Manege, Moscow. Curator.
2017 — “Konstantin Batynkov. Vedute». The “Pop/off/art” gallery. Curator.
Education and professional activities:
Graduated from the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov under the Russian Academy of Arts in 1998.
Researcher at the State Tretyakov Gallery from 2000 to 2004.
The director of the “Pop/off/art” gallery since 2004.
Chief curator of the Saint Petersburg private museum of contemporary art the "New Museum of Contemporary Art" from 2009 to 2010.
Member of the Expert Council of the Russian investment art rating 49ART.