Valera & Natasha Cherkashin
CV
Valera and Natasha Cherkashin currently live and work in New York City and Moscow. They have been exploring the cultures of the USSR, Russia, The United States, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Japan, China, France, Italy and other countries for over three decades, and as a result have presented about 200 solo exhibitions and more than 300 live art performances. The Cherkashin's work has been the subject of 70 television programs, including CNN, Deutsche Welle, and Russian TV, as well as the subject of over 250 publications, which include Art+Auction, Art Forum, Stern Magazine, The Washington Post, among others.
The Cherkashins are members of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia and the Union of Photo Artists of Russia.
MUSEUM AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
AWARDS
2020 - Grant of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia for participation in the Caucasian Riviera project.
2019 - The Cherkashins were named #15 in the In-Art TOP 100 Recognized authors list.
2018 - Award of Excellence "Imaginative Cosmos of Astana" from the Minister of culture and sport, republic of Kazakhstan at The II International "PHOTOfest.KZ".
2016 - Grant from Maya Brin Residency Program, University of Maryland, USA.
2013 - Natasha's lifetime grant from PF of Russia for free creativity.
2011 - Award from Friends of the United Nations and the Government of China for original global art work, USA.
2011 - Dubai Road & Transportation Authority. Transportation Evolution. Dubai Experience. UAE
2018 - Valeria's lifetime grant from PF of Russia for free creativity.
2003 - An award as Creative Photo Artists from Creative Magazine and The Union of Journalists, Moscow, Russia.
2002 - Grant from the Soros Foundation for the participation in "Intersection", Mongolia.
1999 - A four-month grant from Japan Foundation to live and work in Japan, Japan.
1993 - Awarded grant from the Foundation of Social Innovations, New Leaders of Russia, USA.
SELECT LECTURES
University of Maryland, College Park, MD;
Columbia University, New York;
Harvard University, MA;
University of California, Berkeley, CA;
Princeton University, NJ;
The Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson Center,
Washington DC;
New York University, NY;
Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM;
School of Visual Arts, New York City, NY;
The Goldsmith University, London;
University of Southern California, CA;
San Francisco State University, CA;
The Art Academy of Cincinnati, OH;
University of Rochester;
Cosmos Club, Washington, DC;
PhotoEspana2000, Madrid, Spain;
Tokyo University, Japan;
State University - Higher School of Economics, Moscow;
American University, Dubai, UAE;
School of Art, Design and Media (ADM),
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore;
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow;
PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
PUBLICATIONS
“…Valera and Natasha work like sculptors: on an armature of historical structure, they drape layers of contemporary references. In a phrase: their images reveal the transparency of time…”
Stephen Mansbach, Professor of the History of Twentieth-Century Art,
University of Maryland, College Park
Valera and Natasha Cherkashin work with deeply rooted social archetypes - universal symbols of human existence. They are interested in the presence and development of these eternal archetypes of human civilization in the present, in real life.
Lately, their attention is drawn to apocalyptic problems - the fate of humanity burdened by the knowledge of tragedies and disasters. Terrestrial civilization in the third millennium is truly experiencing a fantastic fracture and the Cherkashins can feel its powerful "tragic roar." They do not know what it is, they cannot rationally explain the underlying tectonic shifts that they perceive - they transform their intuitive comprehension into forms of art.
The Cherkashins do not make predictions; it is hard to know even whether such predictions will come true. The process of artistically interpreting the global, catastrophic problems facing all humankind is recorded by their figurative visions.
Being true artists, the Cherkashins have a heightened power intuition and sense the shadow forecasting the future. Their purpose is to express in a form of art how the eternal is refracted in the momentary.
Dr. Aleksandra Shatskih
Unpublished Interview with the Cherkashins
New York City, 2011