VALERY NIKOLAEVICH KOSHLYAKOV (RUSSIAN, B. 1962)

Koshlyakov was born in Salsk in southern Russia and studied art in Rostov before training as a set designer at the city theatre.  As such he was experienced in painting on a large scale, often using crude materials such as cardboard, in keeping with the 1960s practice of using found objects to redefine art.  Koshlyakov merges cityscapes with symbols of politics, history and culture; " I work with utopian mythologies...history is gone, leaving only the face of textbooks and of the familiar black and white chronicle, a revitalised colour as painted old film."  Koshlyakov represented Russia at the 50th Venice Biennale and his works have been exhibited at the Louvre and Pompidou Centre as well as the Guggenheim, New York and Bilbao.