13.09.2009  Dance | Trash | Glamour Photographs by Alexey Salmanov

• Sputnik Gallery is pleased to announce its Grand Opening celebration featuring Alexey Salmanov’s debut exhibition in the United States, Dance | Trash | Glamour. Dance | Trash | Glamour consists of select works from All God’s Children Can Dance, a project that explores what remains when the material world collapses around us and all that is left is a meaningless pile of debris. All God’s Children Can Dance features two accomplished dancers, the Ukrainian Dancing with the Stars it‐girl Alyona Shoptenko and break dancing star Maxim “Cat”. The subjects are freed from the gloss, glamour and fashion of the magazine cover and are instead surrounded by a destroyed material world. The debris exposes the fragility and impermanence of glamour, and we wonder what, if anything, remains when all of our comforts and possessions are taken away. As the finite nature of the material world becomes evident, personal relationships intensify, and loneliness, intimacy, domination, submission, fear and liberation reveal themselves. The pair’s style and grace conflict with – and persist in spite of – the ruins surrounding them. Human spirit and determination triumph. We soon discover that the subjects are not trapped in the emptiness and decay surrounding them, but rather that they have been freed from the trap of material desires. Although Dance | Trash | Glamour is Alexey Salmanov’s first show in the United States, his work has been exhibited and well received in Russia and Ukraine. In fact, he has recently made the shortlist for the 2009 PinchukArtCentre Prize for contemporary art by young artists. The winner will be announced in October. Alexey was born in Rostov‐on‐Don, Russia in 1976. He currently lives and works in Kiev, Ukraine. The exhibition will continue through October 10, 2009. Sputnik Gallery is located at 547 West 27th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Telephone: 1 212 695 5747. www. sputnikgallery.com