Wall to Wall

BORIS MINKOVSKY 2015

wall-to-wall

Wall-to-Wall: THE WORK OF BORIS MINKOVSKY Leon Skatrut Boris Minkovsky has a knack of keeping us at a threshold where a sense of something familiar and utilitarian slides away into mysterious relationships of planes, spaces and colors. In terms of the familiar or the useful he gives us few clues. The space related structures in his present work, sparsely and handsomely painted, make possible reference to pylons, towers etc, in much the way previous bodies of work were titled, and related to, ‘Wall’ to ‘Wall.’ But these apparent references don’t take us far. As for the mystery of planes, spaces, color, rhythm, structure etc, we are faced with a problem – we don’t have much of a language for it, and yet it is clear that this is the real content of the work. It is easier to think about the corner as an object because it has a name and a function whereas the sculptures turn us away from this towards that which we know much less about; our more instinctive and unmediated responses to such phenomena as weight, density and scale.

The installation is generous in allowing us to walk around in between the objects, to back off to some distance and see them against the plain while of the exhibition walls. There is an invitation to speculate, and to pass in, out and around the works repeatedly, noting differences and similarities. In each piece rhythms and weights are uneven within the regularity of the tall frame, but each work has these two fundamental elements in dialogue, the shape and the forms that are placed within it. Minkovsky himself says that he wants his work “to be open and simple like basic geometrical forms”. Here, and in earlier series, one can also think of themes and variations – there is something quite methodical as well as intuitive about the way ideas are explored within a repeated framework. Each piece is a conclusion but also contains the idea of variability and movement.

The way each piece has a more or less colored shape that contains elements of a different second colors emphasizes the distinction between shape and elements and also stresses each piece’s individuality. This simple color coding tells us something about the order of apprehension. However, the coloring also unites the pieces in a painterly way (there isn’t a object where one element is painted and the other isn’t).

The artist says of these murals that “eventually the work began to function as a sort of engaged relief back round, a part of and support for the whole”. There is also a kind of freedom in the coloring that I take to be simply pleasurable, which relates to the variation and rhythm, and I think one shouldn’t underestimate the sense of enjoyment of color, surface, facture and so on, that the works seem to advocate. It is the pleasure of apparently simple things that very rapidly become complex.

Minkovsky work repeatedly stresses that we can see through it, that its space is also part of our space. All his series are typically open and airy, especially so the “L shaped”. They retain the idea that the sculpture holds, or makes or divides spaces within it and around it. The gaps and openness in his work suggest that forms is contiguous with rather than separate from the ‘normal’ space and character of the world we inhabit.

Street Photography

" Grey‐Black Painting " Acrylic on canvas 72” x 48” 1996

" Floor object " Photo 12"x18" 2001

" L shaped sliding form " Acrylic on cardboard 24” x 36” 2014

" Corners " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

" Dialogue " Acrylic on cardboard 24” x 36” 2014

" Black corner " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

" White square " Acrylic on cardboard 24” x 36” 2014

" Ellipse " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

" Black square " Acrylic on cardboard 24” x 36” 2014

" Round " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

" Indoors " Acrylic on canvas 60” x 48” 2014

" Enclosure " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

" Exhibition view " Acrylic on canvas 72” x 72” each, 2014

" Black flooring " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

" White triangle " Acrylic on canvas 24” x 30” 2015

" Wall relief " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

" White triangle " Acrylic on cardboard 24” x 36” 2014

" Triangle " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

" Exhibition view " Acrylic on canvas 60” x 48” each, 2014

" Black body " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

" L shaped forms " Acrylic on canvas 36"x24" 2014

" White corner " Acrylic on paper 12"x18" 2001

BORIS MINKOVSKY 2008‐current Art Professor, FIT, New York 2009‐2010 Gallery Director, Spectre gallery, New York 2005‐current Lives and works in New York 1975‐2005 Exhibited in Moscow, Vienna and Cologne 1990‐2005 Lives and works in Cologne, Germany 1987‐1989 Art Director, the State Puppet Theater, Moscow, Russia 1979‐1981 Art Director, Golden Rings Museums, Vladimir, Russia 1971 Graduated from “Novosibirsk State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering”, MA in Architecture, Novosibirsk, Russia 1949 Was born in Chernovtsy, Ukraine SELECTED ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2005 Gallery Seidel, Cologne, Germany 2004 Gallery Seidel, Cologne, Germany 2003 Gallery Seidel, Cologne, Germany 2002 Gallery Barbara Cramer, Bonn, Germany 2001 Gallery Seidel, Cologne, Germany 2001 Gallery IGNIS, Cologne, Germany 2000 Gallery Barbara Cramer, Bonn, Germany 1999 Gallery Seidel, Cologne, Germany 1998 Gallery Seidel, Cologne, Germany 1998 Gallery H.W.L., Düsseldorf, Germany 1997 Gallery Seidel, Cologne, Germany 1996 Gallery Sigrid Fröhlich, Cologne, Germany 1995 Gallery Glanz, Erftstadt, Germany 1994 Gallery Sigrid Fröhlich, Cologne, Germany 1994 Gallery Schloss Ringensberg, Hamminkeln, Germany 1993 Gallery Busse, Worpswede, Germany 1992 Gallery Kunstkontakt, Bonn, Germany 1992 Gallery Schloss Ringensberg, Hamminkeln, Germany 1991 Gallery Farina, Cologne, Germany 1990 Gallery Ucher, Cologne Germany 1989 Alpirsbacher Gallery, Alpirsbach, Germany 1988 Gallery Ucher, Cologne, Germany 1997 District Gallery, Moscow, Russia

2015 Five Sculptors Show, M55, New York, Ny 2008‐215 FIT Faculty Shows, New York, NY 2012 BENEFITTING ROME ART PROGRAM, New York, NY 2008 "EXECUTION," FIT Museum, New York, NY 2005 "Einladung zur Hinrichtung," Gallery Schippenhauer, Cologne, Germany 2002‐2003 "StadtKunst," Bonn, Germany 2001‐2002 "Zeitzeichen," Kunstverein Hürt, Germany 2001 "Coincidence," IGNIS Cologne, Germany 1999 "Wier Arbeiten hear," IGNIS, Cologne, Germany 1998‐1999 "Westwarts," Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Dresden, Germany 1997 Museum of Modern Art, Liege, Belgium 1996 ‐1997 Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany 1995 Centre BIS, Mönchengladbach, Germany 1994 Gallery De La Bibliothèque, Haulchin, France 1992 Art Center Sittard, Sittard N.D., Holland 1991 Art in Abtei, Brauweiler, Germany 1990 Gallery IGNIS, Cologne, Germany 1990 Gallery Rasche, Freiburg, Germany 1990 Participation in the Barcelona International Art Fair "BIAF 90

PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS National Gallery of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia East‐Asian Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia Museum of History, Moscow, Russia Museum Department of Science and Technology, Government of Germany, Bonn, Germany Museum of Art, Worpswede, Germany Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany Karl & Ushi Kikelbick collection, Germany Farina collection, Cologne, Germany Alex Abezgauz collection, San Francisco, CA Teresa&Alex Ucher collection, Cologne, Germany Roman Spektor collection, Moscow, Russia Sigrid Fröhlich collection, Cologne, Germany Axel Zienicke collection, Bonn, Germany AKF Group, New York, NY SELECTED PUBLICATIONS “The Chautauquan Daily”, Denise Grant, June 29, 2006 “General‐anzeiger”, Swantie Karich, “Eine Illusion von Raum im Sog der schwarzen Leere”, 08.02. 2002 zeitZEICHEN”, Catalog, Kunstverein Huerth, 2002 “Stadt KUNST Bonn”, 2002, Christiane Overmans, Special edition, 2002 “Jedes Jahr eine Jungfrau opfern“, Kolner Stadt‐Anzeiger, Rainer Hartman, 2002 Russische Musik im 20. Jahrhundert”, “Klanginstallation”, Stephan Schmidt, Jurgen Raap, Catalog, 1999 “WEST – WARTS”, Dr. Klaus Klemp, Catalog, 1999 Lehmbruck Museum, Christoph Brockhaus, Catalog, 1997 KoelnerSkizzen”, , Boris Skatrut, Art magazine, 1992 Studiengalerie Busse Worpswede, Erhard Nalbach, , Catalog, 1991 BIAF'90, Art fear, Barcelona, catalog, 1990

2015 NEW YORK