The Moscow Museum of Modern Art together with ASKERI GALLERY present a new project by Pavel Polanski. It is focused on two contemporary realities of life: the real and the virtual.
Polanski’s works not only analyze the progressive social change, but also reveal the very essence of the machine technology intertwined with human biological, social, and spiritual needs. The artist puts both sides of the world on a single plane.
The key character of the artist’s paintings is a woman. In this context, she appears to the viewer as a personification of life created by nature. Placed in a natural environment or urban landscape, she is surrounded by various smart gadgets: drones fly over her head like birds, bringing parcels and gifts, and robot-dogs accompany her on her walk. The surface of the canvas is often covered in cracks, mimicking a liquid crystal screen or a pixel blur. It is evident that the digital world becomes part of the real world.
By painting in a unique technique similar to medieval grisaille, Polanski envisions the end of the «new Middle Ages» — a time when people still fear the excessive interference of technology in the natural processes of life. In a way, he anticipates the near future. Polanski’s paintings depict the uniqueness of the new world where humans interact with various devices on a daily basis. Thus, many of the artist’s works are a satire on contemporary consumer society. He is not afraid to collide human and nature, nature and high technology, the aesthetics and warmth of the human body and the indifferent coldness of metal.
The exhibition allows visitors to explore selected works of the artist and to feel involved in the future world, full of fascinating discoveries and inventions.

Pavel Polanski is a Moscow-based artist whose creative process is dedicated to the study of the modern world. The main subjects of his artistic research are pop culture, digitalization, robotization and the interaction between people and nature. He graduated from the Surikov Art Institute and completed his post-graduate studies at the studio of T. G. Nazarenko. He was a staff member at Aidan Salakhova’s gallery and an intern at the Karlsruhe Art Academy (Germany). Polanski’s works are in the MMOMA collection of the MMOMA, in the Ekaterina cultural foundation collection and in private collections worldwide.

ASKERI GALLERY is contemporary art gallery in Moscow. It was founded by Polina Askeri in 2016. Since then it has realized many exhibition and charity projects in Russia and worldwide. ASKERI GALLERY sells art and collaborates with a small number of artists, strategically building their career paths. The gallery deals with both young and internationally renowned artists, whose works reflect major trends in contemporary Western and Eastern art.

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