Vitaly Komar (1943) and Alexander Melamid (1945) were born in Moscow and graduated from the Stroganov School of Art and Design in 1967. Their first joint show, Retrospectivism, was in the Blue Bird Café (Moscow, 1967). By 1978, they had moved to New York after their first US show at the Ronald Feldman Gallery in 1976, and their first individual museum show at the Hartford Atheneum (1978). Komar & Melamid were the first Russian artists to receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, and were also the first Russian artists to be invited to Documenta 8 (1987). Their projects in the 90’s were devoted to iconoclasm (Monumental Propaganda, American Dreams), democracy and elitism by statistics (People’s Choice), and ecology (Ecollaboration with Animals, Asian Elephant Project).
Komar & Melamid
Explore