Titarenko’s work is featured in recent editions of Spaghettimag (February 2023) and Black & White (October 2023). In Spaghettimag, Titarenko is interviewed by Eva Cristina Müller Praefcke about his literary and msuical influences, the representation of beauty in his work, and his upcoming projects. In Black & White, George Slade discusses the “deeply coded symbolism” of Nomenklatura of Signs. “These are layered works, both conceptually and literally,” Slade writes. “Titarenko prints through multiple negatives, creating overlaid façades that press meaning into a single plane. He also uses brushed-on sepia toning to create grey-yellow highlights in the photographs…One might formally liken the final results to the insubstantial shallowness of the Potemkin village, all surface and no substance.”

We are pleased to share information about Titarenko’s exhibition A Tale of Two Cities, on view at C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore, MD, from January 26 through March 4, 2023. Bringing together two iconic bodies of work taken in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Havana, Cuba, this exhibition showcases Titarenko’s poetic and subtly crafted images that capture the enduring spirit of these two cities. For more information, please visit the gallery website at this link.

We are pleased to share that Alexey Titarenko’s work is included in Revela’T, an international photography festival that positions itself as an international benchmark in contemporary analog photography. The festival runs from 10 September through 2 October in Vilassar de Dalt and Barcelona, Spain.

We are pleased to announce the exhibition Alexey Titarenko: City of Shadows at the National Gallery in Sofia, Bulgaria. Organized by the Fotofabrika Festival, the exhibition runs from 30 June to 14 August 2022 and includes 61 photographs, executed through Titarenko’s unique technique of silver gelatin printing. These works invite the audience to trace the creative journey of the artist, starting with his most popular series, City of Shadows, made in St. Petersburg from 1992 to 1994. The exhibition also includes the artist's recent work from New York, where he has lived and worked since 2007.

We are pleased to share that Nailya Alexander Gallery will present a solo exhibition of Titarenko’s work this year at Paris Photo. The 24th edition of the fair, the world’s leading art fair dedicated to photography, takes place Thursday, November 11 to Sunday, November 14, 2021, at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris. The exhibition focuses on Titarenko’s groundbreaking work “Nomenklatura of Signs” (1986–1991), a series of photomontages and collages inspired by the Russian avant-garde that depicts the absurd and darkly comic reality of Soviet life; and his subsequent series “City of Shadows” (1991–1994), wherein Titarenko unleashed the expressive potential of long exposure in capturing the suffering and anxiety that ensued during the collapse of the USSR. Titarenko’s haunting images of ghostlike crowds have become iconic today. The exhibition is especially timely as it coincides with the 30th anniversary, in 2021, of the fall of the Soviet Union, and also includes some of Titarenko’s more recent work, including photographs of New York.

Please click here to view images from the exhibition.

in a recent interview for St. Petersburg Diary, Titarenko talks about the creation of the now famous series City of Shadows, in particular the crowd images created at Vasileostrovskaya metro station, the only station that connects Vasilyevsky Island to the center of the city. In 1991-1992, the years just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city’s transportation system was paralyzed—except for the metro. Crowds of people would make their way to the only functioning escalator. Titarenko intuitively captured the scene by opening the shutter and not closing it. In this way, he was successful in capturing, through purely photographic means, the atmosphere of chaos and devastation, as well as the emotional state he experienced at the moment. Please click here to read the interview in full.

Please click here to read a review in Russian of Titarenko’s recent exhibition City of Shadows at the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, published in the Russian national newspaper Kommersant.

We are excited to announce that Alexey Titarenko will be the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, titled City of Shadows and on view Saturday 5 September through Sunday 18 October as part of the Moscow Photobiennale. The exhibition includes over sixty photographs from the past thirty years of Titarenko's career, including work from St. Petersburg, Venice, Havana, and New York. Please click here to read the press release and view selected images from the show. 

We are pleased to share that Alexey Titarenko is the subject of an exhibition at Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo in Baden, Austria, on view 14 July - 26 October 2020. The largest outdoor festival in Europe, Festival La Gacilly-Baden Photo is entering its third year and is focused on photography that explores humanistic topics and the relationship between people and their environment. On view is work from Titarenko's series Nomenklatura of Signs and from his series made in St. Petersburg from 1991-2000, during and just after the fall of the Soviet Union. The exhibition is in collaboration with Camera Obscura Gallery in Paris. Please click here for more information about the exhibition.

We are pleased to share that Titarenko’s recent exhibition at Nailya Alexander Gallery, Alexey Titarenko: Nomenklatura of Signs, has been featured in American Cinematographer, the online publication of the American Society of Cinematographers, in a post by John Bailey, renowned cinematographer and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bailey writes, "This early work of Titarenko’s harks back visually to the first decade of the pre-Stalinist Soviet Union, and his montage images of found numbers and human-form cutouts starkly document the human depersonalization of what was called Homo Sovieticus... Where the optimistic and heroic images of Soviet pioneers such as Rodchenko, Shaikhet, Galadzhev, Shimansky and El Lissitzky promised a bold future, Titarenko’s Nomenklatura photographs document the cooling ashes of a burned-out, enervated Soviet Empire, with the young Titarenko as both witness and provocateur." Please follow this link to read the post in its entirety.

We are excited to announce that Alexey Titarenko's new book, Nomenklatura of Signs, is now available for purchase. Please contact Nailya Alexander Gallery at info@nailyaalexandergallery.com to purchase a signed copy.

In conjunction with the publication of the book, the exhibition Alexey Titarenko: Nomenklatura of Signs is currently on view at Nailya Alexander Gallery. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this exhibition is now on view online only.

Titarenko created the series of collages and photomontages that became Nomenklatura of Signs from 1986-1991, under the strict Soviet rule. This new publication presents the series in its entirety for the first time and includes a satirical story written by Titarenko few months before the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Working in secret, Titarenko conceived the series as a way to translate the visual reality of Soviet life into a language that expressed its absurdity, in a hierarchy of symbols that, together, formed a nomenclature — or, in Russian, nomenklatura, a term for the system by which government posts were filled in the Soviet Union. Drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of Malevich, Rodchenko, and other artists of the early 20th century Russian avant-garde, Titarenko captures an uncanny, darkly comic world in which language is controlled and subverted much like the Newspeak of George Orwell’s novel 1984.

Nomenklatura of Signs includes essays by writer Jean-Jacques Marie, art historian Gabriel Bauret, and curator and art historian Ksenia Nouril. The book is designed by Kelly Doe Studio in New York and published by Damiani in Italy.

Collecting New York’s Stories at the Museum of the City of New York

We are pleased to share that Alexey Titarenko's work will be included in the Museum of the City of New York's upcoming exhibition Collecting New York's Stories, which features highlights drawn from recent additions to the Museum’s permanent collection running the gamut from the colonial era to the recent past. A gallery of historic and contemporary photographs, opening Saturday 21 December 2019, showcases works by both well-known and emerging artists, including Bruce Davidson, Helen Levitt, Ruddy Roye, Titarenko, and others. A companion gallery, opening Wednesday 22 January 2020, presents original drawings by long-time New Yorker illustrator Saul Steinberg alongside artifacts that speak to the everyday life of the city.

Alexey Titarenko at the Harn Museum of Art

We are pleased to announce that the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, has acquired a selection of prints from Titarenko’s Havana series for its permanent collection. The Harn is one of the largest university art museums in the South, with a permanent collection of more than 11,300 objects from Asian, African, modern and contemporary art, as well as photography.

coming in spring 2020: Nomenklatura of Signs

Alexey Titarenko created the series of collages and photomontages that became Nomenklatura of Signs from 1986-1991, under the strict Soviet rule. We are now excited to announce the publication of a new book by the same name that presents the series in its entirety for the first time. Working in secret, Titarenko conceived the project as a way to translate the visual reality of Soviet life into a language that expressed its absurdity, in a hierarchy of symbols that, together, formed a nomenclature — or, in Russian, nomenklatura, a term for the system by which government posts were filled in the Soviet Union. Nomenklatura of Signs is designed by Kelly Doe Studio, New York; printed by Tabula Rasa, St. Petersburg; and published by Damiani, and will be released in Spring 2020.

PARIS PHOTO 2019

We are pleased to share that Titarenko’s work will be exhibited again this year at Paris Photo with Nailya Alexander Gallery. On view will be photomontages, photocollages, and vintage prints from Titarenko’s first series, Nomenklatura of Signs (1986-1991). Please see the Paris Photo website for details regarding hours and admission.

Festival Photo La Gacilly

We are pleased to announce that Titarenko’s work will be on display at the Festival La Gacilly Photo in the Jardin du Relais Postal in Brittany, France. Works from Nomenklatura of Signs as well as from Titarenko’s three series from the 1990s will be shown. Titarenko’s exhibition will open Friday 7 June. “The City is a Novel: Alexey Titarenko” book signing is organized during the day of the opening with the collaboration of Librairie Larcelet. Please click here to download the press release for the festival, or click here to visit the festival’s website.

Paris Photo 2018

Alexey Titarenko’s work will be on view again this year at Paris Photo in Nailya Alexander Gallery’s booth at the Grand Palais. Unique photo-collages from Titarenko’s first body of work, Nomenclature of Signs, will be exhibited alongside prints from his famous series City of Shadows and Black and White Magic of St. Petersburg. Please see the Paris Photo website for details regarding hours and admission.

Photo London 2018

Alexey Titarenko's work will be on view this year at Photo London in Nailya Alexander Gallery's booth. Now in its fourth edition, Photo London will take place at Somerset House from Thursday, May 17 through Sunday, May 20. Please see the Photo London website for details regarding hours and admission.

Paris Photo 2017

Alexey's Titarenko's work will be on view this year at Paris Photo in Nailya Alexander Gallery's booth, A30. Paris Photo, the largest and longest-running international photography fair in the world, will take place in the Grand Palais from Thursday, November 9 through Sunday, November 12. Please see the Paris Photo website for details regarding hours and admission.

PANEL DISCUSSION AT THE COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART

On Thursday, September 14 from 6:30-8:00 PM, in conjunction with the exhibition Red Horizon, Alexey Titarenko will join a panel of artists, art historians, and curators to discuss the politics of cultural production in the USSR during the 20th century and the continued relevancy of the art of dissent today. In addition to Titarenko, participants include the artist Vitaly Komar; Natalia Sidlina, curator or Russian art at Tate Modern in London; and Christina Kiaer, Assosiate Professor of Art History at Northwestern University. This program is free and open to all.

Nailya Alexander Gallery: The City is a Novel

Titarenko will be the subject of a solo exhibition, The City is a Novel, at Nailya Alexander Gallery from March 22 through May 20, 2017. The show will feature images from his 2015 monograph of the same name. The opening reception will take place in the gallery on Thursday, April 6 from 6:00-8:00 PM.

Madison Avenue Gallery Walk

Art historian Dmitry Kiyan will be at Nailya Alexander Gallery at 4:00 PM on Saturday, April 29 to give a talk about the work in Titarenko's current exhibition Alexey Titarenko: The City is a Novel. The event, part of this year's Madison Avenue Gallery Walk, is free and open to the public.

PGH PHOTO FAIR AT THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART

Nailya Alexander Gallery will be exhibiting Titarenko's work at the PGH Photo Fair, now in its fifth edition, at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. The fair will be held April 29-30, 2017, in the Hall of Sculpture, and will host thirteen internationally renowned photography dealers and projects whose work spans the history of the medium, from nineteenth-century vintage prints to contemporary photography and photobooks.

sTUDIO iNTERNATIONAL iNTERVIEW

Please visit the website of Studio International to read a new interview with Titarenko by art historian Natasha Kurchanova, in which he discusses his life in the Soviet Union, his early photographic experiments, and the writers and filmmakers who have influenced his work.

"When I was a boy, I walked along the city streets, and some things around me – such as buildings, their architectural details and smells – elicited feelings of delight, euphoria, emotional excitement and inspiration. They were responsible for creating a special state in my soul...When I was given a camera at eight years of age, I said to myself that it was precisely the kind of instrument I could use to help me preserve these fleeting moments of the condition of my soul. I could make them last longer, and return to them over and over again. I took my camera and went to after-school photography classes for children at the Kirov Palace of Culture on Vasilyevsky Island, St Petersburg and, little by little, I learned to use it."

The Photography Show Presented by AIPAD

Alexey Titarenko's work will be on view in Nailya Alexander Gallery's booth #706 at The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, on view at Pier 94 in New York from March 30 through April 2, 2017.

Damiani Gallery

Titarenko will be the subject of a solo exhibition opening May 12, 2017, at Damiani Gallery in Bologna, Italy. Damiani Gallery, an exhibition space open to the public for contemporary photography, was inaugurated in June 2016 as a new facet of the renowned publishing company Damiani editore.

Soho Photo Lecture: City of shadows

The video from Titarenko's lecture at Soho Photo is now available for viewing on Vimeo.