Gushchin Vadim

Vadim Gushchin was born in Novosibirsk in 1963, and in 1980 moved to Moscow, where he graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. Since 1988, he has been professionally engaged in photography. Since 1990, he has been actively presenting his works at group and personal exhibitions, both in Russia and abroad.
The photographer works mainly in the genre of post-conceptual still life. Engaged in portrait, architectural and applied photography. The author’s photos are recognizable due to the minimalistic approach to the composition of the frame. In his works, you can observe parallels with the history of European art, reflections on the objects around us, their fundamental form and symbolism.
Vadim Gushchin’s works are included in museum and private collections in Russia, Germany, USA, France and other countries. The photographer is the winner of the Grand Prix of the Moscow House of Photography competition «Silver camera» in the category «Architecture» in 2007.

I have been practising art photography for over 30 years, and my choice of media photography was not accidental. Photography provides the artist with a unique opportunity to fully realize your creative design, creating your own individual world of images. At the same time, the documentary basis of photography is binding the artist’s thread with the reality in which he lives and works. That is, each piece of photographic art is artistic fiction and an actual document of existence this fiction in life. This is a paradoxical property of photography and something that attracts me to this particular type of fine art. What I shoot can formally be attributed to the genre “Still Life”, and this will be true since we are talking about inanimate nature, about the objective world, or a quiet life. But the peculiarity of my work is that I’m interested not in objects and their relationship with a person but the sacred meaning of things. I always try to reveal something, primarily for myself. Something that exists not only in my imagination but also in objective reality. To a greater extent, it is working with shape and colour, rather than working with the subject itself, which is typical for the genre of still life. My compositions are significant signs, they do not need to be considered in a subject set. When shooting a real object, I try and abstract from it. The object is not only attractive to me in itself, but also as a kind of frame, on which something more could be strung. The item transforms into an archetype in which distinct individual qualities disappear. It turns into some kind of abstract concept, idea, into easily a recognizable and internationally unified conceptual sign e.g a book, an envelope, a pill. It is also worth emphasizing the inclusion of the cultural tradition. Any artist must be the next link in the chain of artistic experiences of previous generations. My photographic works continue the line of Russian and Soviet geometric art, which was developed by artists in the sixties, which originates from the icon and suprematism and which is still quite viable today.

2018
From the Private Library, The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, Moscow

2016
The evolution of sight, 1991-2016. 25th anniversary of the Union of Photo Artists of Russia, Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow, Russia

2015
Soviet Photo, The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, Moscow
New Arrivals. 1998-2014, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Russian House, Schilt Publishing Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2014
“Cultural values” at the Lianzhou Foto 2014 Festival, Shoe factory, Lianzhou, China
Auction Exhibition at HCP, HCP Houston center of Photography, Houston

2013
Object. Function. Image., Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, Moscow, Russia
Inventory of a Private Library, Blue Sky Gallery, Oregon center for the art of Photography, Portland, Oregon, USA
Vadim Gushchin. Photos 2000-2013, Galerie Beckel-Odille Boicos, Paris, France

2012
Look of Photographer, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

2010
Aesthetics of statics Alexander Grinberg/Vadim Gushchin, Galerie Viktor Gray, Duesseldorf, Deutschland

2009
Photographs, Museum of the History of Photography, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

2008
Kladovka, Lumiere Brothers Gallery, Moscow, Russia

2007
Typology (together with J. galert), the State Russian Museum of Photography Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Silver camera, Manege Central exhibition hall, Moscow, Russia

2006
The Earth, FotoFest 2006, Winter Street Studios, Houston, USA

2004
Photo relay: from Rodchenko to today, House of Photography, Moscow
Russische Fotografie 1920 – 2000, Moskau in Fotos, Stadtmuseum, Innsbruck

2002
Idea Photographic after Modernism, Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe, USA

1996
“Photopage-4”, State Museum of History, Saint Petersburg, Russia

1993
A la Recherche du Pera, Forum des Halles, Paris, France