AFP.com

Khodorkovsky art protest show opens in New York

(AFP) – 15 hours ago

NEW YORK — An exhibit of sketches drawn during the controversial trial of former Russian oil tycoon and government opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky opened in New York on Tuesday.

The exhibit, "Sketches of (in)justice: The Khodorkovsky Trial from Putin to Medvedev," is the result of a competition for artists attending the marathon legal process facing Khodorkovsky, who began a hunger strike this week.

The founder of the Yukos oil company was Russia's richest man and an increasingly influential challenger to then-president Vladimir Putin's rule when he was arrested on embezzlement charges in 2003.

The sketches, which can be viewed at http://risuemsud.ru/en/, range from the surreal to the mundane and the sinister in their depictions of the trial.

"People who come to see just another exhibition opening in New York, I doubt they will be unmoved," the entrepreneur's son, Pavel Khodorkovsky, told AFP. "That will just advance my cause of my dad."

Pavel Khodorkovsky, who says it is too dangerous for him to return to Russia and has only been able to communicate by mail with his father over the past seven years, said news of the hunger strike came as a "terrific surprise."

"None of us were expecting this," the 24-year-old said.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is already serving an eight-year prison sentence on fraud and tax evasion charges and faces trial on fresh charges that could see him jailed for 22 more years.

Yukos has since been dismantled and Khodorkovsky has turned into a figurehead for Russia's persistently diminishing number of Kremlin opponents.

The Russian government -- in which Putin is now prime minister and his hand-picked protege Dmitry Medvedev is president -- says Khodorkovsky is guilty of major financial crimes during the privatization of formerly state-owned property in the 1990s.

 
Bloomberg

Jailed Russian Oil Tycoon Inspires Drawings From Moscow Trial

Review by Katya Kazakina

May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man and owner of its biggest oil company, has been spending his days in a glass cage in a Moscow courtroom, facing 22 1/2 years in jail if convicted of money laundering and embezzlement.

Scenes from the trial inspired “Sketches of (in)justice: The Khodorkovsky Trial From Putin to Medvedev,” an exhibition at the Gelabert Studios Gallery in New York.

The show is the result of a competition organized by the Moscow-based Sergey Kuznetsov Content Group and the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Community Center for Peace, Progress and Human Rights. Artists attended the trial and submitted their responses online. Six winners were selected from a pool of 40 applicants and about 400 artworks ranging from caricature to photo-realism.

“The point is to raise awareness through art about what’s happening to my father,” said Pavel Khodorkovsky, 24, New York- based president of the Institute of Modern Russia, a think-tank that sponsored the exhibition. It was seen in Moscow, Paris, Brussels and London before arriving in the U.S.

“We hope that the trial will be stopped,” said Pavel Khodorkovsky, “which is possible only if President Dmitry Medvedev starts playing an active role in it.”

The hope is slim, said Zlata Ponirovskaya, a Moscow-based artist who curated the show. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former owner of OAO Yukos Oil Co., has been behind bars since 2003 when he was accused of tax evasion and fraud and later sentenced to eight years in a Siberian penal colony.

Theft Charges

He’s now on trial, along with his business partner Platon Lebedev, on charges of stealing 350 million tons of oil from Yukos. Khodorkovsky yesterday ended a two-day hunger strike staged to protest the legality of the proceeding.

His supporters say the state’s case against him is politically motivated. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insists the trials are being handled by independent courts without political interference.

“We had to act. Art can capture the truth,” said Ponirovskaya, at the opening on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Participating artists openly attended the trial and drew while in the courtroom. The resulting images include portraits of the bespectacled Khodorkovsky, the square-jawed Lebedev, and a court secretary putting on a green shawl. Some drawings are cartoonlike. Others have comic-book format. The art isn’t for sale.

“Sketches of (in)justice: The Khodorkovsky Trial From Putin to Medvedev” runs through May 22 at 255 W. 86th St. It will travel to the Library of Congress for a one-day event on May 25.

(Katya Kazakina is a reporter for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the reporter of this story: Katya Kazakina in New York at kkazakina@bloomberg.net


"Selection of Paintings from the Estate of Mortimer Laughlin"

February 2, 2010 until May 15, 2010




Teona Kapon

Art by Teona

December 1-12, 2009
Opening December 1, 2009, from 5-7PM




TO BE THERE

Paintings. Sculpture. Photography. Video.

Curated by GaleriaZero
Barcelona/Amsterdam

November 3 to November 20, 2009



TO  BE  THERE:  An international collective exhibition hosted by Gelabert Studios Gallery from November 3 to 21, 2009 and curated by GaleriaZero / Barcelona.
 
 The title of the show, To Be There, means "to form part", "to exist" and the word "there" involves  a geographic reference to be at a certain place at a specific time in anticipation of something really significant to occur.   This place is going to be  Gelabert Studios Gallery, on 86th Street & Broadway and just steps from Lincoln Centre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum.
 
This exhibition forms part of a wider international promotional program created by GaleriaZero (www.galeriazero.info) which aims to promote artists internationally and, on this occasion, opens a door to a wider audience while giving these works a genuine introduction to the art market. 

In this exhibition you will find artworks from Switzerland (Thomas Sarbach, Natalie Gutgesell, Silvia Aregger - Silva) Spain (Patricia Raga),  The Netherlands (Karel Stoop, Arent Weevers), Afghanistan ( Aref Damee), France (Henri Kartmann) , Finland (Mira Nieminen) , Lithuania ( Sergejus Plotnikovas), Bulgaria ( Svetlana Gencheva ), (USA) Christine Conelly and Canada (Odette Frigon)