Yulia Vorobyeva. Abundance

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Free Workshops School of Contemporary Art present Yulia Vorobyeva’s project Abundance that focuses on the issues of modern consumer society. The exhibition is part of the MMOMA Young Art Support Programme. Exploring the phenomenon of modern abundance, Yulia Vorobyeva creates still lifes reminiscent of classical Flemish paintings from discarded produce and packaging. The visual language of Flemish still lifes, famous for its abundance and beauty, which emerged after the famine of the late 16th - early 17th centuries in northern Europe, acquires new meanings in Julia Vorobyova's works. Here, the consequences of food overproduction and overconsumption are contrasted with the historical reverence towards food and the idea of heavenly abundance. Instead of its triumph, we are presented with a new context: a critique of the culture of overconsumption and overproduction, and a reminder of the price that nature must pay for the human desire for excessiveness.

The artist finds inspiration in the most unexpected places: from an autumn garden landscape with fallen apples to discarded produce in supermarket dumpsters. Her still lifes represent aesthetic paradoxes: beauty and decay, tempting abundance and waste that has lost its original value. Each work contrasts the fragility of nature with the mindlessness of contemporary culture.

The exhibition features 9 still lifes made in the genre of fine art photography, as well as installations, video pieces and educational materials. Visitors can also learn more about the problems of waste recycling, and take part in interactive workshops on environmentally friendly art.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Yulia Vorobyeva is an artist from Nizhny Novgorod. In 2010, she graduated from a vocational school as a fashion designer, and moved to Moscow, where she studied at the Free Workshops School of Contemporary Art of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Since 2013, she has worked with photography, took part in exhibitions and conferences, and in 2017, completed her master's degree at Kosygin Russian State University, where she researched the visual language of fashion photography. She worked as a photo editor for online publications, and since 2020, she returned to art practice. In 2024, she received Honourable Mention at the Budapest International Foto Awards for her still life series Abundance.

ABOUT THE SCHOOL

The School of Contemporary Art Free Workshops is an educational platform of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art for young artists and curators. It was founded in 1992 by a group of artists and art historians, including Alexander Ponomarev, Vladimir Kupriyanov, Vladimir Nasedkin, and Moscow State University professors Vera Dazhina and Valery Turchin. Students attend workshops of the best speakers, successful cultural leaders, well-known philosophers, and theorists of contemporary art. Through the educational programme, young artists and curators immerse themselves in the art world, participate in workshops, group exhibitions and festivals. Being part of the Museum, Free Workshops offer their audience a unique opportunity to study theoretical and practical aspects of contemporary art while being in its epicentre. At every stage of their journey the artists are supported by the Museum and the School. They are encouraged to take part in group exhibitions (annual exhibitions of young art, group projects by young curators) and to have solo exhibitions (MMOMA Young Art Support Programme).