Alexandra Obukhova

«All of us have learned according to the ‘shop’ principle – knowledge was passed from master to apprentice, we were blindfolded, adopting the mistakes of our teachers along with their experience. It’s a good job that many of my peers had an opportunity to work in Western museums, where we were able to see what kind of mistakes we were making ... There will always be an opposition between the artist and the curator: even Szeemann was known to be criticized by his favorite artists ... Often, owing to the curator the artist realizes his role in the context of history, in a wider range of events and names» (Alexandra Obukhova, TimeOut)

«In the end, we no longer used any ready-made recipes, and the very idea that we know how Russian art is arranged has been discarded. This is how the very idea of field research in the regions has originated» (Alexandra Obukhova, It`s My City)

An archive curator and an organizer of the historical and archive projects of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. Member of the curatorial group of the First Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art, art critic, art-historian, curator. 

Alexandra Obukhova has been the head of the research department of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art since 2012 and is in charge of the museum’s archive, which forms the basis for international research projects and is the center whose aim is the popularization of the Russian contemporary art. Obukhova is listed in” the Top-50 of the most influential persons in the Russian art”, according to “Artguide” magazine.

As a curator Obukhova strives to attribute new hues to the pieces of art, disclose them, setting them into unusual surroundings. She helps the artist to express himself in a more popular language.

In spring 2017 the First Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art was opened. It is a major research project within the frame of the long-term program of the Garage museum, aimed at development and popularization of the contemporary art in Russia, where Ms. Obukhova is one of the six curators. During the preparation for the Triennial the organizers examined and selected the works of over 60 artists aged 19 to 69 from more than 40 towns and cities of Russia in order to fully and comprehensively reflect the art processes which are under way in modern Russia.