SEMEN MOTOLYANETS
(born in 1982, Brest, Belarus)
Lives and works in Russia and in Belarus.
He works with performance, installation and object as well as with painting, graphics and video.
EDUCATION
2009 SPbGHPA, Department of Monumental and Decorative Painting;
2012 School of Young Artists of St. Petersburg Fund «Pro Arte».
AWARDS AND PRIZES
2021 Anatoly Zverev Award nominee, Moscow, Russia;
2018 French Institute Prize for the project «Very Artificial Choice»;
2017 4th place in the ranking of Russian artists according to Forbes magazine, Russia;
2016 Small prize «Autumn Salon with Belgazprombank», Minsk, Belarus;
2010 Kandinsky Prize nominee, Moscow, Russia;
2009 State Prize in the field of contemporary art «Innovation» in the category «New Generation», together with Dmitry Petukhov and group «SOAP», Russia;
2001 Institute PRO ARTE and The Ford Foundation Grant, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Co-founder (together with Dmitry Petukhov) of the art group «SOAP».
Member of the «Open Studio Nepokonolenie 17».
Member of the group «PARAZIT».
Participant of the Moscow International Biennale of Young Art «Stop! Who is coming?» (Moscow), the parallel program of the Biennale «Manifesta 10» (St. Petersburg), the Ural Industrial Biennale (Yekaterinburg), Festival Art Prospect (St. Petersburg), CEC Artslink program (New York), the residence Cite des Arts (Paris).
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
«Adjective: Vertical», Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Trap for Visionary», Exhibition Hall, Brest, Belarus.
2021
«Half», NCCI, Minsk, Belarus.
«I Wish I Made Art Every Day», Space Conserva, Brest, Belarus.
2020
«Instruments of Clean Future», A&V Gallery, Minsk, Belarus.
«Act 68», Freud Museum of Dreams, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2019
«On Sterile Art», Cité des Arts, Paris, France.
2018
«Antipersonal exhibition of Semyon Motolyants who realized that he understood nothing in contemporary art», Borey Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2017
«Very tempting choice», Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2016
«Local peculiarity», Space KH, Brest, Belarus.
2015
«Big paintings solve big questions», Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
«To Rubber! Material Resistance», Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Cementa II», Pushkinskaya-10 Art Center, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Unfamiliar Ceiling», PARAZIT Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Cementa II», Vinzavod, Moscow, Russia.
2022
«Group PARAZIT: In Search of Prepared Spectator», Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Between the Lines. Textual in Visual», Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
2021
«Thirties Generation in Contemporary Russian Art», State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.
2017
«Prospect of the Unconquered», MMOMA, Moscow, Russia.
«Russia - China», New Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«The Last Wailing», Borey Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2016
«Application», Cultural and Educational Center MARATA 64. Museum of the History of Vocational Education, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Autumn Salon with Belgazprombank», Central Exhibition Hall, Minsk, Belarus.
PARAZIT grouping auction: «Simple Art», MARINA GISICH GALLERY, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
«Zemletruzhenik. In Memory of Yuri Nikiforov», S.P. Diaghilev Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia;
«Don't Tell Anyone», Space 0+, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Mystery of the First», St. Petersburg Avant-Garde Museum (Matyushin House), St. Petersburg, Russia.
«The Inheritance of Man», Borey Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«The Mysterious Garden. Within the framework of the city's international art festival "The Access Point», Anna Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Important Dialogues», ART PROSPECT Festival, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
2015
«All Their Own», Leningrad Center, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Art Fair Supermarket, Stockholm, Sweden.
2014
«The Other Capital», Museum of Moscow, Moscow, Russia.
«Black Envy», as part of the Parallel Program of Manifesta 10 Borey Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
The Art of Translation, Pro Arte Foundation, as part of the Parallel Program of Manifesta 10, Mayakovsky Library, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Comunalka», Marata 33, as part of the Special Program of Manifesta 10, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Saving Venice», Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Seven Ways to Look at a Miracle», Matyushin House, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Signal 1 and Signal 2, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Gyumri Public Art Huddle, Gyumri, Armenia.
«Art Prospect 2014», Public Art Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«Upstairs», Museum of Moscow, Moscow, Russia.
2013
«Lost in translation», Parallel program of the 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.
«Parazit+», Marat Gelman Gallery, Vinzavod, Moscow, Russia.
«Protective screens», Nina Duo Gallery, Milan, Italy.
«A couple of words», Borey Art Center, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2012
«Saturnalia» (with group «SOAP»), with the support of Smirnov and Sorokin Foundation, Tbilisi/Batumi, Georgia.
CEC Artslink Art in odd places program, New York, USA.
«From Dullness to Parasitism», Kultproekt Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
«Let us do what we want to do and think about what we want to think» (with group «SOAP»), project «Luda Express» in New Holland, St Petersburg, Russia.
«Rejection» (with group «SOAP»), Anna Nova Gallery, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
«For a line in CV», gallery "Door», St. Petersburg, Russia.
«The State of Things» (with group «SOAP»), museum «ART-Communalka», Kolomna, St. Petersburg, Russia.
«The State of Things» (with group «SOAP»).
«Horizontal Position», gallery PARAZIT, St Petersburg, Russia.
2011
10th Festival «Contemporary Art in Traditional Museum» Grant of «PRO ARTE» Foundation (with group «SOAP»), Hygiene Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.
«Stone, Scissors, Paper», Parasite Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
2008
«Rehearsal of Life», A. Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House, St. Petersburg, Russia.
ART-FAIRS
2022
«Tupik 20 22», Art4 Museum, Moscow, Russia.
2021
«This is our country, Grandma», YABA, Sevkabel, St. Petersburg, Russia.
COLLECTIONS
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
PERMM Museum, Perm, Russia.
Museum of Non-Conformist Art, St. Petersburg, Russia.
V. Smirnov and K. Sorokin Foundation, Russia.