VLAD LOKTEV
DUALIS
Catalog of Exhibition Within parallel program of Moscow International Biennale 'Fashion and Style in Photography 2019’
The exhibition DUALIS Photography from the series «Balance
& Freedom»
Artist Vlad Loktev Curator Catrin Borisov RuArts Gallery. Moscow. Russia Date: 21.02.2019 - 10.04.2019
VLAD LOKTEV. DUALIS February 21– April 10 2019 Within parallel program of Moscow International Biennale 'Fashion and Style in Photography 2019' February 21, RuArts Gallery presents an exhibition of Vlad Loktev, one of the most famous and honored photographers in Moscow, who has been creating, changing and reconceptualizing the visual aesthetics of Russian glossy magazines for 30 years. Loktev's career began in the 1980s when he started to cooperate with the Fashion House “Slava Zaitsev”, which determined the future direction of his artistic view and became the starting point for the developing of author's style. Even then, his portraits of celebrities that symbolized the whole epoch, began to be published in the best magazines of that time, such as the Ogonyok and Sovetskaya Zhenshchina (Soviet Woman) journal. Right after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Loktev went to the US, where he discovered the original works of cult photographers who influenced his already recognizable style - Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts. The last one had the biggest impact on the young ambitious author, who returned to Moscow with new ideas and began working with the largest modeling agency Red Stars. Owing to Loktev, who filmed more than 2 000 lookbooks, many Russian models began their successful careers, becoming the faces of the emerging media, propagating a glamour – completely new aesthetics of consumerism in the post-Soviet area. In the year 1994, it was Loktev who as a guest photographer created a pilot cover for Cosmopolitan – the first American glossy magazine in Russia and then
became the author of a large fashion shoot in the first official issue. This collaboration transfered Loktev to a to a new level. The pioneer of Russian fashion photography Loktev is still actively working with Vogue, Glamour, Tatler, GQ, Maxim, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, The Hollywood Reporter and other iconic magazines, creates large urban advertising campaigns and special projects for the World Class and the Naked Heart Foundation established by Natalia Vodianova. His exhibitions were held in the largest museums of the city: the Multimedia Art Museum, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and The Shchusev State Museum of Architecture. A well-known author, whose name is associated by photography admirers only with fashion and advertising shootings, presents a series of abstract works for the first time. This abrupt jump from figurative into abstract art does not lose the sensuality and eroticism typical for Loktev. Behind literally blurred outlines and pumping corporality, the viewer recognizes seascapes and the conflict between two complementary natures that give rise to a new form – raging water and stone. “Water gives life and stone symbolizes power. We can say that they are the symbols of masculine and feminine. The symmetry set in the series creates the necessary balance between them, the balance from which freedom springs up”. Vlad Loktev
BALANCE & FREEDOM Abstraction, Symmetry, Eroticism‌ What is it? Stone and Water as symbols of the male and female nature. Water is an essential life element, without which life wouldn’t exist. And Stone as a metaphor for eternal and long-lasting power. And the Symmetry showing the balance between these two essentials. Movement of Water and stillness of the Stone seen under a specific angle, with a lighting game creating a mirroring reflection enchanting the symmetry, and elaborating on the balance between the two beginnings. This balance is a necessity for nature to maintain its equality, harmony, and freedom. Fifteen interesting photos at first glance remind of abstraction, but after further investigation, you start to notice sea-scapes. Slow and methodic movement of water which crosses paths with the impenetrable stone obstacle and transforms into abstract shapes and figures, and within seconds a new form is born. As a famous saying goes, you can endlessly look at three things, one of which is the movement of water, such as the flow of water in the river and mighty force of the ocean wave, smashing full-force, on to the sea-side stones. Same could be said about these artworks, endless dimensions of varying shapes and figures, never become boring to look at, and return us to the question of our purpose in life.






Dualis, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum panel, varnish 120 x 180 cm Edition of 5 
Balance & Freedom #1, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 180 x 120 cm Edition of 5


Balance & Freedom #3, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 150 x 150 cm Edition of 5 
Balance & Freedom #2, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 150 x 150 cm Edition of 5 








Diving, 2018 Direct printing on panel of two parts, varnish Size 150 x 150 cm Edition of 10 


Balance & Freedom #4, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 180 x 120 cm Edition of 5 
Balance & Freedom #6, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 150 x 150 cm Edition of 5 




Balance & Freedom #5, 2018
 
Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 120 x 120 cm Edition of 5


Balance & Freedom #7, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 180 x 120 cm Edition of 5 


Pool, 2008/2017 Direct printing on panel of two parts, varnish Size 150 x 150 cm Edition of 10

Balance & Freedom #8, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 133 x 150 cm Edition of 5 




Balance & Freedom #9, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 120 x 120 cm Edition of 5
Balance & Freedom #10, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 150 x 150 cm Edition of 5 








Balance & Freedom #11, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 150 x 150 cm Edition of 5 
Deep #3, 2018 Direct printing on panel of two parts, varnish Size 150 x 150 cm Edition of 10 




Balance & Freedom #14, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 120 x 120 cm Edition of 5 


Balance & Freedom #12, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 180 x 120 cm Edition of 5 




Balance & Freedom #15, 2018 Direct printing on aluminum composite panel, varnish Size 120 x 120 cm Edition of 5 
Pool #2, 2008/2018 Direct printing on panel of two parts, varnish Size 150 x 150 cm Edition of 10







Links https://ruarts.gallery/gallery/exhibitions/110 http://mamm-mdf.ru/exhibitions/dualis/ https://moskvichmag.ru/tag/vystavka-dualis/ https://www.vladloktev.com/dualis http://apolloonline.ru/events/vystavka-vlada-lokteva-dualis-v-ruarts/
Contact e
vlad_loktev@mail.ru
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www.vladloktev.com
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@vladloktevart
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Photo Vlad Loktev
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+7 903 1300796
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www.ruarts.gallery/
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info@ruarts.ru