vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #167 / Arts and Ideas / Reading article...

Let me say this at the start: I can’t tell a piece of modern art from a squashed crate of tomatoes. If someone swapped a veggie-stained canvas with an acclaimed Pollack, I wouldn’t know the difference.

Yet the Arka Gallery, tucked in an alley off Svetlanskaya 15, is a treat to even the most pathetic art doofuses like me.

Primorye art critic Marina Kulikova has filled the small, two-room space with works painted by contemporary artists she says are some of the best in Primorye. While a great deal of Russian art panders to rich but ignorant buyers, Kulikova will install only pieces with real artistic merit.

Such a goal makes the place refreshing. You leave the fluff on the radio behind, and momentarily forget those aggressive advertising methods Russians have adopted with such skill. No more billboards pawning off the latest brand of mobile phone. This is art for art’s sake.

Approximately 20 pieces comprise the current display, representing an interesting slice of artistic trends circulating the Far East. More than anything else, I admired the work as a representation of art on the edge – created by painters in a region where high culture receives little attention from the government.
And there, unfortunately, lies the problem. Kulikova says her intent is to sell artwork, not just display it. But she claims that “those who can buy art here don’t understand it, and those who understand art don’t buy it.” If so, I wonder how long the gallery will last.

Yes, Kulikova and her partner have a rich backer, allowing them to purchase and display art not only from Primorye, but from all of Russia and South East Asia as well. They will also release brochures and posters here and in the United States.

But is Arka too far ahead of its time? Can an art gallery here thrive on creative ideas first and the desire to make a buck second? Kulikova’s primary displays will be from artists who don’t show in galleries because their work is too complex to attract buyers. I worry that such complexity will attract as few buyers as it does elsewhere in Russia’s depressed art market, and Arka will disappear. Visit before it’s too late.