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Art Focus Now is an online magazine and newsletter created by journalists, critics and researchers.

We focus on what is now in contemporary art in Eastern Europe, including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics; the Caucasus and Central Asia.

21/10/2026

Ukrainian artist Kateryna Lysovenko’s site-specific exhibition ‘Creation, Catastrophe, Creation, Again and Again’ at Salzburger Kunstverein draws on Mithraic sacrifice, early Christian sanctuaries and the trauma of war.

Painted directly onto the gallery walls, her frescoes explore dehumanisation, violence and the equality of all living things. The exhibition’s impermanence is central to its meaning — the murals will be painted over when the show closes, surviving only in memories and documentation.

Read the full story via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/news/lysovenko-and-circulatory-systems/

Images:

1 - Kateryna Lysovenko. Home came at you, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich
2 - Kateryna Lysovenko. Still Hour, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich
3 - Kateryna Lysovenko. Creation, Catastrophe, Creation, Again and Again. Exhibition view. Salzburg, 2026. Photo courtesy of Kunst Dokumentation

20/10/2026

“A catalogue of an imaginary exhibition—one for which there is currently neither space nor time.”

Andrey Krasulin: Hidden Presence, a new book by British art historian Mark Gisbourne, offers a rare insight into the career of the émigré non-conformist sculptor. Comprising over fifty years of sculpture, from Soviet-era commissions to recent works created in Berlin, the album brings together archival photographs, public artworks and recent sculptures, placing Krasulin’s practice in the context of Arte Povera and post-minimalism.

Explore via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/news/new-book-on-krasulin-charts-fifty-years-of-sculpture/

Images:
1 - Andrey Krasulin. Untitled, 1986. Courtesy of the artist
2- Andrey Krasulin. The Fence, 1970s. Courtesy of the artist
3 - Andrey Krasulin. Playground at the “Blue Distance” Sanatorium, Divnomorskoye, Krasnodar Krai, 1961–1962. Courtesy of the artist

16/10/2026

What happens when space debris becomes part of everyday life?

For decades, fragments of rockets launched from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome have fallen into the forests of the far north, where local communities have turned them into building materials, household objects and a source of income.

Fallout Zones at Moscow’s Ruarts Foundation brings together photography, sculpture and anthropological research by artists Igor Elukov and Polina Timofeeva, and anthropologist Makar Tereshin. Based on four years of investigation, the exhibition explores the unexpected coexistence of industrial debris, local communities and the natural world.

Visit the exhibition till November 1, 2026.

Read the full story via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/news/fallout-zones-when-space-debris-becomes-a-way-of-life/

Images:
1+2 Fallout Zones. Exhibition view. Moscow, 2026. Courtesy of Ruarts Foundation ️️️️
3 Igor Yelukov, Polina Timofeeva. The Bear, 2024. Camera trap, Komi Republic. Photo by Igor Yelukov, Polina Timofeeva. Courtesy of Ruarts Foundation

09/10/2026

From pioneering Siberian video art to sculpting fantastical plants and creatures from discarded materials, Dmitry Bulnygin’s practice has taken an unexpected turn.

Now based in a former factory on the edge of France’s Sainte-Assise Forest, the artist works with wire, metal, wood, animal bones and rubbish, creating sculptures inspired by the natural world. His iron plants, wooden piglets and imaginary creatures preserve the experimental spirit of his earlier videos, exploring decay, transformation and the emergence of new forms of life.

Read the full profile via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/people/growing-wild-dmitry-bulnygin/
Images:

1 - Dmitry Bulnygin. Between the pages, 2026. Courtesy of the artist
2 - Dmitry Bulnygin. Courtesy of the artist
3 - Dmitry Bulnygin. Winter Herbarium, 2024–2025. Courtesy of the artist

07/10/2026

For its 17th edition, ArtVilnius widened its horizons, tracing a cultural axis from Vilnius through Warsaw to Vienna.

Seventy galleries and institutions presented around 300 artists from twenty countries, while Lithuania remained firmly at the fair’s centre. Painting dominated, alongside ceramics, glass, photography and installation, with prices ranging from accessible editions and small works to five-figure paintings.

Beyond the booths, TAKAS and the Project Zone brought sculpture, performance and institutional projects into the fair, giving ArtVilnius a broader cultural frame.

Read the full story via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/art-market/artvilnius-2026-between-vilnius-warsaw-and-vienna/

Images: ArtVilnius’26. Exhibition view. Vilnius, 2026. Photo by Andrej Vasilenko. Courtesy of ArtVilnius

02/10/2026

Diplomats, journalists, academics and businessmen became unlikely patrons of the Soviet underground.

From the late 1950s onwards, Western collectors including Eric Peschler, Norton Dodge and Alberto Sandretti did far more than buy art. Through friendships, publications, exhibitions and patronage, they became vital conduits through which unofficial Soviet art reached the West. Their collections preserved a remarkable body of Russian cultural heritage—but also helped determine which artists became visible internationally and how their work was understood.

Read the full story via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/art-market/windows-to-the-west-the-foreigners-who-collected-the-soviet-underground/

Images:
1- Eric A. Peschler. Privat in Moskau. Book cover. Image from the Bookbot website
2- Ülo Sooster. Self-portrait, 1959. From collection of Eric Peschler, Switzerland. Courtesy of Bonhams
3- Dmitry Krasnopevtsev. Still Life with Tree and Jars, 1987. From collection of Eric Peschler, Switzerland. Courtesy of Bonhams

01/10/2026

Two new video installations by Chto Delat International turn the road movie into a journey through apocalypse, exile and uncertainty.

Presented in Berlin this autumn, A Comprehensive Self-Organized Amateur Expedition in Search of Losses and Discoveries and Songs of Hope and Despair blend performance, fairy tale and political reflection. From cryptic “doomsday radio” signals to a troupe carrying the clouds of the Apocalypse, both works search for something increasingly elusive: the possibility of hope—or even a miracle—in a world that seems to be coming apart.

Read the full story via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/news/weak-forces-human-wavelengths-and-clouds-of-the-apocalypse/

Images:
1 - Chto Delat International. Fell Down – Get Up. Berlin, 2026. Photo by Ludger Paffrath. Courtesy of After The Butcher
2 - Chto Delat International. A Comprehensive Self-Organized Amateur Expedition in Search of Losses and Discoveries, 2026. Video still. Courtesy of Chto Delat International
3 - Chto Delat International. Songs of Hope and Despair, 2025. Video still. Courtesy of Chto Delat International

25/09/2026

Soviet caricatures mocked Modernist art as alien and threatening. Paradoxically, behind the Iron Curtain they also became some of the only images through which people encountered the art they were intended to discredit.

Caricaturing Modernism at MOMUS-Moυσείο Μοντέρνας Τέχνης / Museum of Modern Art in Thessaloniki presents thirty works from Yuri Albert’s collection. Instruments of state propaganda, accomplished drawings and invaluable historical documents, these cartoons reveal the ideological battles fought through art — and the contradictions of the system that produced them.

Read the full story via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/news/cartoons-against-modern-art-yuri-alberts-collection-on-view-at-momus/

Images:
1 - Portrait of Yuri Albert. Courtesy of Yuri Albert
2 + 3 - Caricaturing Modernism: Soviet Cartoons on Art from the collection of Yuri Albert. Exhibition view. Thessaloniki, 2026. Photo by Antonis Vlachos. Courtesy of Antonis Vlachos and Museum of Modern Art (MOMUS)

22/09/2026

Lyuda Kalinichenko’s artistic journey began with a lost family archive—and has now reached outer space.

Exploring personal and collective memory, Kalinichenko works across installations, artist’s books, digital collage and video performance. In April 2026, her Retreat, created for the Xu Bing Space Art Residency, was shown aboard the SCA-2 Art Satellite, approximately 400 kilometres above Earth.

From reconstructing her family history in the Urals to placing a 90-second performance in orbit, memory remains a living matter in Kalinichenko’s practice — capable of connecting past and future.

Read the full profile via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/people/kalinichenkos-journey-from-urals-mountains-to-outer-space/

Images:
1+2- Lyuda Kalinichenko. From the 'Best Before: Unlimited' project, 2017-2019. Courtesy of the artist
3- Lyuda Kalinichenko. Dolphins. The Book about My Family. Eat While You Still Can and Drink While You Still Can. Exhibition view. Yekaterinburg, 2022. Ural Branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Courtesy of the artist

21/09/2026

Tashkent has a new landmark firmly rooted in the present day. Uzbekistan’s first state institution dedicated to contemporary art, the Centre for Contemporary Art opens with Hikmah (‘Wisdom’).

Transformed by Studio KO from a 1912 power station and former tram depot, the new centre launches with an international exhibition curated by Dr Sara Raza. Bringing together ten artists, Hikmah explores wisdom as a living tradition spanning spiritual and material forms of being.

Read the full story via the link: https://artfocusnow.com/news/to-tashkent-for-wisdom-inside-uzbekistans-new-centre-for-contemporary-art/

Images: 1 - Nari Ward. Tashkent Groundin, 2026. Hikmah. Exhibition view. Tashkent, 2026. Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent (CCA Tashkent). Courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) and Andrey Arakelyan
2 - Ali Cherri. A Mouth, A Wound, 2025. Hikmah. Exhibition view. Tashkent, 2026. Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent (CCA Tashkent). Photo by Dan Glasser. Courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) and Dan Glasser
3 - Nadia Kaabi-Linke. Flying Carpets, 2011. Hikmah. Exhibition view. Tashkent, 2026. Photo by Dan Glasser. Courtesy of Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent (CCA Tashkent) and Dan Glasser

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