Valery Koshlyakov is one of the most authoritative and interesting voices of contemporary Russian art and this volume traces his complex artistic development from his debut at the Rostov Academy and his participation in the avant-garde group "Art or Death", to his work for the Biennials in Venice and Sao Paulo. A development characterised by great experimentations and works that matured in parallel with the great political, social and economic changes that have so radically transformed Russia since the 1980s. A fascinating intersection of history, culture, politics and art that saw Valery Koshlyakov's work gather up the stimuli and emotions of this great historical change, placing his own language into the most radical expressions of contemporaneity. Today Koshlyakov lives and works between Moscow and Paris, his works have been exhibited in the most prestigious international art events and are part of the permanent collections of some of the most important museums in the world. This book brings together, along with several critical and philosophical essays on Koshlyakov's work, a very rich iconographic documentation of his entire oeuvre: from the grand installations to the little Iconus, from the paintings to the "cardboard" works, from the drawings to the sculptures, it forms an essential point of reference to know and study one of the greatest Russian artists alive today.
