Sanya Kantarovsky
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Biography
Born 1982 in Moscow, Russia
Lives and works in New York, NY
Sanya Kantarovsky works across mediums, including sculpture, animation and curation, with painting remaining at the center of his practice. Teeming with wry humor and unearthly narratives, Kantarovsky’s paintings propose scenarios of turmoil and investigate liminal spaces, physical proximities, affect, and cruelty. His sometimes delicate and often macabre subjects grapple with the confines of their bodies, interacting with one another in a painterly satire of status anxiety and existential crises.
The artist has recently been the subject of institutional solo shows at Aspen Art Museum, Kunsthalle Basel and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin. His works have been presented in institutions such as Kunsthalle Zurich; Drawing Center, New York; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Baltic Triennial 13, Vilnius; Jewish Museum, New York and Sculpture Center, New York. Kantarovsky’s works are held in the permanent collections of Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Hammer Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington; Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA), Boston; ICA, Miami; Pinault Collection, Paris; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Moderna Museet, Stockholm among others.
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Sanya Kantarovsky is quintessentially a painter – someone who lives and breathes the materials, procedures, and heritage of the art. He’s someone who, according to the curator Elena Filipovic, “believes more in the utter necessity of painting than nearly anyone I’ve ever met.”
– Barry Schwabsky
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WorksOpen a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Installation view, Non-Specific Objects, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2024
Sanya Kantarovsky
Booted, 2024Oil on linen139.7 x 99.1 cm
55 x 39 inchesB-SKANTAROVSKY-.23-0004'Booted' captures the dynamics of power and dependency that evoke familial bonds. As is characteristic of Kantarovsky's practice, the work creates ambiguity, as it is not clear whether the scene..."Booted" captures the dynamics of power and dependency that evoke familial bonds. As is characteristic of Kantarovsky's practice, the work creates ambiguity, as it is not clear whether the scene depicted is one of tenderness or oppression.Exhibitions
Non-specific Objects, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2024
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