Pop/off/art gallery is honoured to present the first in the number of years solo exhibition “Kitsch Concept” by Rostislav Lebedev, master of contemporary Russian art, particularly known as one of the founders of Sots Art. The show, marking the artist’s 70th birthday, will include new objects and paintings, created specially for this exhibition, alongside pieces previously shown at the State Tretyakov Gallery. Works by Rostislav Lebedev in a variety of medium will fill the main exposition space and other rooms never involved in exhibition purposes before, such as the restroom.

Rostislav Lebedev has gained recognition as one of the founders of Sots Art, experimenting with symbols and signs of the Soviet age since 1970s. The Sots Art movement itself (the name originating from “pop art” + “socialist realism”) began in the USSR in 1970s in the framework of alternative culture, opposing the state ideology of the time and aiming to deconstruct the prevailing sign system by denouncing ideological myths and cliches with the means of sarcasm, grotesque and satire. Lebedev, whose interest in social mythology hasn’t ceased with the beginning of the new era, compares his new exhibition project to a layer-cake, with “one layer being sweet, the other sour, and some of them making one sick”. Combining the heritage of Russian tradition in painting, Soviet posters and postcards with heated societal topics, Lebedev creates works in recognisable style that he calls “aesthetic idiotism”. His current rejection of all concepts is highly relevant in the present time, that the artists feels acutely.

Rostislav Lebedev was born in Moscow in 1946. He graduated from Moscow State Pedagogical University from the faculty of Fine Arts and Graphics in 1969. In 1994 he became a member of the Moscow Union of Artists. His works were on show as a part of major exhibitions worldwide. His solo shows were held in Moscow and New York. Works are included in collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and other museums around the world, also important private collections in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, France, the UK, Sweden, Austria and other countries.