Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Sergey Sonin
Born in Smolensk in 1968. Artist, director, screenwriter, producer. Studied at Semyon Aranovich's workshop for film directing at St. Petersburg State University of Cinema and Television
Elena Samorodova
Born in Moscow in 1973. Architect, production designer and photographer. Studied at Moscow Art School №1. Graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute, Experimental Design Group in 1998.
Sergey Sonin and Elena Samorodova (Partnership "Lead and Cobalt") are multimedia artists, working in two capitals: Moscow and St. Petersburg, founders of several art associations. Their works are in the collection of the Museum of Moscow, Krasnoyarsk Museum Center "Peace Square", Multimedia Art Museum and in private collections.
For the last decade and a half, the artists have been continuously experimenting, playing with imaginary reconstructions of the world's cultural and historical present, past and future in their works, filling them with new content. In their mystifications they also refer to time, shortening or prolonging its course, establishing “their” author's perceptions and frameworks.
SELECTED PROJECTS:
- 2024 — “Utopia and Uchronia”, personal project, MMOMA Museum, Gogolevsky b-р. 10/2 , Moscow, Russia
- 2024 — Fair |catalog| December, a—s—t—r—a gallery, Moscow, Russia
- 2024 — St. Petersburg Art Fair “1703”, a—s—t—r—a gallery, Manezh, St. Petersburg, Russia
- 2024 — KONTUR Graphics Fair, a—s—t—r—a gallery, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
- 2024 — 1st GRAUND Biennale “Textile in Contemporary Art”, a—s—t—r—a gallery, GRAUND Solyanka, Moscow
- 2023 — St. Petersburg Art Fair “1703”, a—s—t—r—a gallery, Manezh, St. Petersburg
- 2023 — “Utopia and Uchronia. The Dream of a Landowner of the Middle Strip”, a—s—t—r—a gallery, Moscow
- 2022 — "Northern Arcadia", solo exhibition, City Sculpture Museum, St. Petersburg.
- 2022 — "Utopia and Uchronia", solo exhibition, Navicula Artis Gallery, St. Petersburg.
- 2019 — "Procession" video premiere, Karo-art, Oktyabr cinema, Moscow
- 2018 — "Razvilka. Personal exhibition, Krokin Gallery, Moscow
- 2016 — "Trapper's Fragment. Russian Stereo". Solo exhibition, Krokin Gallery, Moscow
- 2015 — "Russian Realism XXI century", Museum of Modern History of Russia, Moscow.
- 2015 — "Now&After" video festival. Film "Egyptian flock".
- 2015 — "Kvadratura", - "Strategic Heritage", Tenishev ECC, Smolensk
- 2015 — auction PIASA. Russian & soviet photographs. "Gogol. Rome. From the Third to the First", Paris
- 2015 — "Enrichment of Reality", - "Strategic Heritage", A3 Gallery, Moscow
- 2015 — "Victory as a new epic", - "Strategic Heritage", Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery, Moscow
- 2014 — "Gogol. Rome. From the Third to the First", Museum of Moscow. Personal exhibition
- 2013 — "Egyptian flock", Krasnoyarsk Museum Center, personal exhibition, Krasnoyarsk
- 2013 — "Shelter for Sniper", Transatlantic Gallery, Moscow, Parallel program of the 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Solo exhibition
- 2013 — "Strategic Heritage", Polytechnic Museum, Moscow. Solo exhibition
- 2012 — "Hot Cold. Loft Floors, St. Petersburg
- 2012 — "Egyptian Pack. Part 1", gallery POBEDA, Moscow. Solo exhibition
- 2010 — "Divine Wind", Marble Palace, St. Petersburg
- 2009 — Exhibition "Divine Wind", Museum of Modern Art, Moscow
- 2007 — "Generals of the 70s", Yakut Gallery, Moscow
- 2005 — "Generals of the 70s", Festival "Fashion and Style in Photography", Moscow
“The universe of Elena Samorodova and Sergey Sonin is a “Russian invisible Empire”, either a post-apocalyptic world or a parallel reality, fixed in aesthetically perfect video frescoes and artifacts, such as, for example, stove tiles, which make us believe that all this happened in reality. The ordinary viewer risks getting lost in these quantum movements and, waving his hand, giving himself over to emotional and aesthetic experiences, but now we have the opportunity to talk to the authors and untangle this tangle of meanings.”
Quoted from the article “Elena Samorodova, Sergey Sonin: Over the Russian Void, through Russian Zen”
The project "Utopia and Uchronia. Dream of a Landowner of the Middle Strip" was represented by a—s—t—r—a gallery in 2023.
“The exhibition-installation, to be more precise-a visionary interdisciplinary performance of 'Utopia and Uchronia. The dream of a middle-class landowner” is one of the variants of the embodiment of the large project of the Partnership ‘Lead and Cobalt’. It is dedicated to the Indian campaign (the turn of the 18th-19th centuries) of Emperor Paul I and Napoleon Bonaparte (then First Consul of France, and soon, in 1804, crowned Emperor of all Frenchmen). This campaign and alliance of the two emperors almost failed to materialize in 1801. Only the assassination of Paul (in our usual linear history) stopped the advance of Russian troops towards India and put an end to the Russian-French rapprochement aimed at destroying the British dominance in the world economy and politics of the 18th-19th centuries. In the space of the project “Preparing for the Indian Campaign” the fate of the sovereign Paul the First was quite different, and the villainous conspiracy suffered a complete fiasco.”
Ivan Chechot
Exhibition “Utopia and Uchronia. Dream of a Landowner of the Middle Strip”, 2023, a—s—t—r—a gallery, Moscow
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
- Artguide - Year Three: the results of the 1703 art fair
- Forbes - Results of St. Petersburg art fair “1703”
- Snob - “Art owes no one anything”. A conversation between gallery owner Alina Kryukova and art historian Ivan Chechot
- BURO - New exhibitions in “HES-2”, MMOMA, “Zotov”: where to go and what to see in museums in May
- ART Knot - “I want to escape from the leveling and simplified monotony of the modern world's offerings”
Works
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Brother Hare in the Spring Gardens, 2024
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
Высота 20 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Brother Hare in the Spring Gardens, 2024
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
Диаметр 35 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Brother Hare in the Spring Gardens, 2024
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
37 х 35 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2025
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
51 х 37 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2025
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
46 х 40 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2025
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
41 х 21 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2025
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
46 х 25 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2025
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
55 х 31 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2025
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
54 х 29 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2025
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
46 х 36 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2025
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
56 х 34 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2024
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
47 х 35 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2024
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
48 х 28 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Stove Tile "The Hare and the Snowbird Girl", 2024
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
высота 42 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Brother Hare in the Spring Gardens, 2024
Бумага, уголь, сепия, карандаш
180 х 120 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Brother Hare in the Spring Gardens, 2024
Бумага, уголь, сепия, карандаш
120 х 170 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Brother Hare in the Spring Gardens, 2024
Бумага, уголь, сепия, карандаш
90 х 120 см
Samorodova Elena
VILLA ROTONDA architect Andrea Palladio, 2022
Chintz, embroidery, applique
132 х 129 см
Samorodova Elena
«УСАДЬБА ЗНАМЕНСКОЕ-РАЁК» архитектор Николай Львов, 2023
Chintz, embroidery, applique
125 х 142 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
"PUSHCHINO-ON-NARE ESTATE", 2024
Fabric, applique, gold sewing, embroidery
120 х 140 см
Samorodova Elena
"BELL-MAYAK in the ARPACHEVO Estate" by Nikolay Lvov, 2022
Chintz, embroidery, applique
127 х 140 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Brother Hare in the Spring Gardens, 2016
Пигментная печать
Триптих, общий размер 50 х 150 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Brother Hare in the Spring Gardens, 2016
Пигментная печать
Триптих, общий размер 50 х 150 см
Samorodova Elena
Standard "Napoleon Bonaparte. In memory of the Indian campaign"., 2022
Fabric, applique, gold sewing, embroidery
180 х 170 см
Sonin Sergey, Samorodova Elena
Brother Hare in the Spring Gardens, 2024
Керамика, роспись по сырой эмали
32 х 37 см
