Komar & Melamid

Komar & Melamid

Thank you Stalin for Our Happy Childhood, 1983

Biography


Once dubbed “exasperating expatriates” for their relentless, wry mockery of the social, political, and artistic systems of the former Soviet Union, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid met as art students in Moscow, and teamed up in 1965. They worked together until 2004, creating an outpouring of paintings, sculptures, installations, performances, public projects, photographs, music, and poetry, charged with keen criticisms of Communism, consumerism, the art market, and other human excesses. In 1967, they founded the SOTS Art Movement, a mash-up of Socialist Realism, Dada, Conceptualism, and Pop Art. “If pop-art was born by the overproduction of things and their advertising, then Sots Art was born of the overproduction of ideology and its propaganda, including visual propaganda,” Komar once explained. In 1978, they defected from the USSR and moved to America, where they could freely pursue their subversive vision.

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Exhibitions

Sep 03 – Nov 27, 2024 Group Show Focus Group

Oct 2023 – Feb 2024 Group Show Airspace

May 23 – Aug 17, 2017 Group Show Art on the Front Lines

Jun 21 – Jul 25, 2014 Group Show Labor Intensive

Komar & Melamid

Air Superiority, 1997

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Komar & Melamid

Air Superiority, 1997

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Komar & Melamid

The Wings Will Grow, 1997

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Komar & Melamid

George Vladmir, Isadora and MArcel, 1996-97

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Komar & Melamid

Yalta Conference (From a History Book, 1984), 1982

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Komar & Melamid

Thirty Years Ago 1953, 1982-83

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Komar & Melamid

Kruschev's Plot Against Beria, 1981-82

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Komar & Melamid

What Is to Be Done, 1982-83

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Komar & Melamid

OLO, 1976

from "A Catalogue of Superobjects - Supercomfort for Superpeople"

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Komar & Melamid

Model KHAASA-703, 1976

from "A Catalogue of Superobjects - Supercomfort for Superpeople"

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Komar & Melamid

Tirsak, 1976

from "A Catalogue of Superobjects - Supercomfort for Superpeople"

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Komar & Melamid

Post-ARt No. 1 (Warhol), 1973

SEARSTYLE with Psalms, 1992

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SEARSTYLE with Psalms, 1992

installation view

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SEARSTYLE with Psalms, 1992

installation view

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Paintings, 1987

installation view

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Paintings, 1987

installation view

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Anarchistic Synthesism, 1986

installation view

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Anarchistic Synthesism, 1986

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6

SEARSTYLE with Psalms, 1992

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6

SEARSTYLE with Psalms, 1992

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6

Paintings, 1987

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6

Paintings, 1987

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6

Anarchistic Synthesism, 1986

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6

Anarchistic Synthesism, 1986

installation view