Biography and CV
b. 1982. Lives and works in London.
Representation:
Marshall Contemporary, Los Angeles
I originally studied Economics and Social and Political Science before attaining an MA in Fine Art with Distinction from the Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2013. I've since had several solo exhibitions in New York, London and Los Angeles. My work has been presented at such institutions as the Whitechapel Gallery (London), Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Boulder, CO), Fotomuseum Winterthur (Winterthur, Switzerland), Jerwood Space (London), K11 (Shanghai), and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. In 2012, I became the first non-documentary photo-based artist to win in the British Journal of Photography’s Awards. I've been awarded residencies at MASS MoCA and Art Omi, and recorded for Tate Audio Arts, one of the world's most important sound archives dedicated to art. In 2023, I'm currently showing in Direct Contact: Cameraless Photography Now at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art in Bloomington, Indiana
My work is held in several important collections, including the The Hepworth Wakefield / The Tim Sayer Bequest and the Raymond Learsy and Melva Bucksbaum Collection.
In 2014, I qualified under the Exceptional Talent program for non-EU artists working in the UK.
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"Ishchuk seems to have discovered the tipping point, beyond which our frame of reference is forced to change." - Loring Knoblauch, Collector Daily
My practice uses the material aspects of photography as a departure point for a wide-ranging practice that assimilates painting, drawing and sculpture. Light sensitive processes and surfaces are dramatized as a technical support and diverted away from the indexical toward formal propositions that converse across media and disciplines. These propositions mainly deal with various thresholds of visual information, the fundamental structures of perception and how these can be resolved into physical objects.
In the last few years, the practice has seen a gradual shift from using the photographic print as a site for material interventions and mark-making activities toward broader concerns with surface registration and what can be called ‘demarcation’ – the line as an architectonic compositional device as well as a boundary of material identity and between 2D and 3D space.
Fusing the handmade, the industrial, the elemental, the architectural and the archaeological, my practice explores how such formal strategies generate affect – or an illusion thereof – and taps into photography's ambivalent relationship with the modernist canon. My work aligns with the concept of “contemporary ruin gaze” posited by Svetlana Boym, which is a gaze "reconciled to perspectivism, to conjectural history and spatial discontinuity [and that] requires an acceptance of disharmony, of the contrapunctual relationship of human, historical and natural temporality.”*
*[Svetlana Boym, 'Ruins of the Twentieth Century', in 'Frieze Projects and Frieze Talks 2006-2008']
EDUCATION
MA Fine Art (Distinction) & PG Diploma in Fine Art
Chelsea College of Art and Design, 2012-13
Tutors: Brian Chalkley, Adam Chodzko,
Tom Dale, Alexandre da Cunha,
Gareth Jones
Graduate Certificate in Digital Lens Based Image Making
London College of Communication, 2007
M.Phil. in Modern Society and Global Transformations
University of Cambridge, 2005
BA (Hons) in Economics and Sociology (First class)
University of York, 2004
Attended secondary school in Moscow and Boston, MA
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2019
Judith Stenneken & Nikolai Ishchuk
Marshall Contemporary, LA
July 13–27, 2019
2018Thresholds
Photo London | Discovery
Joanna Bryant & Julian Page (Stand D10), London
May 16—20, 2018
2015Penumbra
Denny Gallery, New York
November 19—Dec 23, 2015
Download press release
2014
Nikolai Ishchuk: Indeterminate Objects
Denny Gallery, New York
February 6—March 16, 2014
Download press release
2013
Studio Series. Chapter 4. Nikolai Ishchuk
Curated by Louise Chignac
Foodface, London
July 18—20, 2013
2011
Big Bangs, Big Bucks
(with Geoffrey H. Short)
Diemar/Noble, London
Jan 13 - Mar 12, 2011
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND FAIRS
2023
Direct Contact: Cameraless Photography Now
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, IN
Feb 16 – Jul 9, 2023
2022
bbb-arb
Curated by Ana Teles and Luis Sandes
Triangle Gallery, Chelsea College of Arts, London
Dec 12–14, 2022
OPEN02
parkroyalgallery (at Excelsior Studios), London
Sep 23 – Oct 3, 2022
2021
The Stubborn Influence of Painting
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, CO
June 10 - September 6, 2021
[Rescheduled from 2020]
In Praise of Shadows
Marshall Contemporary, LA
Jan 16 – Feb 7, 2021
2020
Into the Blue: Cyanotype in contemporary photography
Online exhibition / Viewing room
Black Box Projects, London
September 9 – October 18, 2020 (Online)
2019
Photo London | Discovery
Joanna Bryant & Julian Page (Stand D11), London
May 15—19, 2019
2018
SALON/18
Photofusion, London
December 7 - January 12
Perfectly Small
Joanna Bryant & Julian Page
The Foundry Gallery, London
June 13 – July 14, 2018
2017
SALON/17
Photofusion, London
December 8 - January 13
The Manchester Contemporary
Joanna Bryant & Julian Page, Stand 744
Manchester Central, Manchester, UK
October 27–29, 2017
Celeste Prize 2017 exhibition
The Bargehouse, OXO Tower, London
October 6–8, 2017
2016
UNTITLED. Art Fair
Denny Gallery, Booth B6
Miami Beach
November 29 – December 4, 2016
Preview on Artsy
Women's Independence, curated by Magda Danysz
ASIA NOW art fair, Paris
October 19–23, 2016
PERFECTIoNISM (Part III): The Alchemy of Making
Griffin Gallery, London
October 4–November 18, 2016
Women's Independence, curated by Magda Danysz
chi K11 Museum, Shanghai
September 9–October 9, 2016,
Emerged – Part II
Joanna Bryant & Julian Page, London
July 5–10, 2016
Emerged – Part I
Joanna Bryant & Julian Page, London
June 28–July 2, 2016
2015
Business As Usual
North Contemporary festival
Pyramid art center, Warrington, UK
October 2—31, 2015
Collector's Eye
Curated by Olga Vashchilina
Cosmoscow Art Fair, Moscow
September 11–13, 2015
2014
Off White
Exhibition/Charity Auction, co-organized by Christie's
Cosmoscow Art Fair, Moscow
September 11–13, 2015
START Art Fair
(Booth 3.2 / Denny Gallery)
Saatchi Gallery, London
Sep 9—13, 2015
Business As Usual
Turf Projects, Croydon, London
Jul 9—30, 2015
Business As Usual
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Leeds
Apr 2—12, 2015
Plat(t)form 2015
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
Jan 23—25, 2015
Photo50: Against Nature
curated by Sheyi Bankale
London Art Fair
Jan 20—25, 2015
Share This! Appropriation after cynicism
Denny Gallery, New York
December 14, 2014—January 25, 2015
Download Ana essay
Download press release
Art Omi Weekend
Art Omi, Ghent, NY
July 12—13, 2014
2013
UNTITLED. Art Fair
with Denny Gallery, Booth B20
Miami Beach
December 2—8, 2013
Jerwood Encounters: Family Politics
Jerwood Space, London
November 6—December 8, 2013
Download press release
RAW
Unit 2, 44-48 Wharf Road, London
October 14—19, 2013
Chelsea Postgraduate Show 2013
(showing in MA Fine Art and MA Curating)
Chelsea College, London
September 7—12, 2013
Unfamiliar
Denny Gallery, New York
April 6—May 12, 2013
Download curator's statement
Breathing Space
Camberwell Space, London
Mar 18—22, 2013
Download press release
Portfolio Russie / Portfolio Rusland projection
Recyclart, Brussels
Jan 29, 2013
2012
AMPS Photofusion Salon 2012
Photofusion, London
Dec 7, 2012 - Jan 18, 2013
BJP IPA 2012
Foto8 Gallery, London
Nov 14 - 24, 2012
The London Open 2012
Whitechapel Gallery, London
Jul - Sep 2012
British / Summer / Time
Diemar/Noble, London
Jun - Aug 2012
2011
Foto8 Carousel Slide Slam
Blurb Pop-Up Store and HOST Gallery, London
Nov 2011
Workshop 20'11
Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow
Jul 13 - Sep 1, 2011
2007-2010
Salt
II Moscow Int'l Bienniale for Young Art, Moscow
Jul-Aug 2010
Landscape...
RuArts Gallery, Moscow
Feb-Mar 2009
The Incredible Holga and Wonder Diana
Jam Jar, Dubai
May-Jun 2008
Stills 1 ½
KIC (Cultural Information Center), Zagreb
Jun-Jul 2007
RESIDENCIES
2019
The Studios at MASS MoCA
North Adams, MA
2014
Art Omi International Artists Residency
Ghent, NY
AWARDS AND HONORS
2017
Best Alternative / Experimental Photography
SALON/17, Photofusion, London
Celeste Prize 2017
Finalist. Selected by Fatoş Üstek and Rósza Farkas
2015
Flash Forward Award
Honorable Mention. The Magenta Foundation, Canada
First Book Award
Nominated for
Non Sequitur
2014
Top 100 UK
Best young photo artists from 10 years of Flash Forward
The Magenta Foundation, Canada
2013
WW Solo Award
Longlisted
Bloomberg New Contemporaries
Shortlisted
UAL Students' Union Student Initiative Fund grant
for
Breathing Space exhibition
The Wellcome Trust windows commission
Changing Perception of Images, Longlisted
PUBLICATIONS AND CATALOGS
Photo London 2019
Candlestar, London
Photo London 2018
Candlestar, London
START 2015: Emerging Artists, New Art Scenes
Skira, Milan
Off White
Christie's, London
Flash Forward 2015
The Magenta Foundation, Toronto
London Art Fair 2015 Catalogue
London Art Fair/Upper Street Events, London
Flash Forward Tenth
The Magenta Foundation, Toronto
Against Likeness, in Hierarchies (2013)
Exhibition publication, contributing author
Independently published, London
Download original essay
2012 International Photography Awards Annual
IPA, Los Angeles
Flash Forward 2012
The Magenta Foundation, Toronto
The London Open
Whitechapel Gallery, London
Flash Forward 2011
The Magenta Foundation, Toronto
RuArts Catalogue of Exhibitions 2010-11
RuArts Gallery, Moscow
Qui Vive? II Moscow Int'l Biennale for Young Art, 2010
Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation, Moscow
COLLECTIONS
Raymond Learsy and Melva Bucksbaum collection
The Hepworth Wakefield (Tim Sayer Bequest)
Art Omi collection
University of the Arts London
Chelsea College Library Special Collection
TEACHING AND SPEAKING
2014-17
Visiting artist
BA Fine Art
British Higher School of Art and Design, Moscow
2015
Visiting artist
Newman School, Boston, MA
Photography as object? Explaining hybrids of photographic art explored in Photo50
Panel discussion chaired by Martin Barnes (Senior curator of Photographs, V&A);
with Sheyi Bankale, Nikolai Ishchuk, Darren Harvey-Regan, and Thorsten Brinkmann
London Art Fair
January 21, 2015
2013
Objects about pictures
Postgraduate theory seminar
Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
2011
Big Bucks artist talk
Diemar/London, London
2007
Holga workshop
Design Museum London
