selected exhibitions

2023

Alexey Titarenko: A Tale of Two Cities, C.Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MA

2022

Metamorphoses and Reflections, National Art Club, New York, USA
Alexey Titarenko, Revela’T Festival, Vilassar de Dalt and Barcelona, Spain
Alexey Titarenko: City of Shadows, National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria

2021
Alexey Titarenko, solo exhibition at Nailya Alexander Gallery’s booth at Paris Photo, Paris, France
Alexey Titarenko: City of Shadows, State Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSPHOTO, St. Petersburg, Russia

2020
Alexey Titarenko: Nomenklatura of Signs, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY
Collecting New York's Stories, the Museum of the City of New York, NY
”Stadt der Schatten” Festival Photo La Gacilly-Baden, Austria
Alexey Titarenko: City of Shadows, Multimedia Art Museum (MMAM), Moscow, Russia

2019
Unlimited: Recent Gifts from the William Goodman and Victoria Belco Photography Collection,
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
”La Ville des Ombres” Le Festival Photo La Gacilly, France

2018
Zerkalo: Forever After, The State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSPHOTO, St. Petersburg, Russia
Pendulum. Merci e Persone in Movimento, The MAST foundation, Bologna, Italy
Photo London 2018, Somerset House, London, UK

2017
Paris Photo 2017 with Nailya Alexander Gallery, Paris, France
Alexey Titarenko: The City is a Novel, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY
Alexey Titarenko: The City is a Novel, Spazio Damiani, Bologna, Italy
The Soviet Century: 100 Years of the Russian Revolution, Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT
Red Horizon: Contemporary Art and Photography in the USSR and Russia, 1960-2010, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Commemorating the Russian Revolution 1917/2017 Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ

2016
Alexey Titarenko: The City is a Novel, Camera Obscura Gallery, Paris, France
Selected works from City of Shadows series, 1993 in the framework of Urban life in Contemporary Photography, Musee de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Alexey Titarenko: Venice (2001-2014), Palazzo della Ragione, Milan, Italy

2015
Alexey Titarenko: Photographs from St. Petersburg (1991-1999), Galerie C, Neufchâtel, Switzerland
Alexey Titarenko: St. Petersburg in Four Movements, Manège Royal, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France
Les parfums dans tous les sens, Jardins du Palais Royal, Paris, France
Alexey Titarenko: New York, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY

2014
Russian Art from Nonconformism to Global Capitalism, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY

2013
Leningrad's Perestroika: Crosscurrents in Photography, Video and Music, Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, NJ

2012
Contemporary Russian Photography: Perestroika, Liberalization and Experimentation, Fotofest, Houston, TX
New York: Stieglitz to Titarenko, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY

2011
A Revolutionary Project: Cuba from Walker Evans to Now, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Alexey Titarenko: Photographs 1986-2010, Lodz International Fotofest. Atlas Sztuki Gallery, Lodz, Poland
Soviet Photography in the 1980s from the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ

2010
Alexey Titarenko: Petersburg in Black & White, Late Revelations, Moscow International Photobiennale, Pobeda Gallery, Moscow, Russia

2008
Unfulfilled Time, curated by Gabriel Bauret, Thessaloniki Photo Biennale, Greece
Alexey Titarenko: Venice, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2007
Vital Signs: Place, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
DE L’EUROPE. Photographies, essais, histoires, Centre National Audiovisuel de Luxembourg, Luxembourg

2006
Northern Light: Photographs of Alexey Titarenko and Pentti Sammalahtti, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Shadows into Light, Wall space, Seattle, USA

2005
Sogni di Luce, Gallerie Santa Cecilia, Rome, Italy
Alexey Titarenko, Artothèque de Vitré, Vitré, France

2004
St. Petersburg: City of Water and City of Shadows, FotoFest, Houston, TX
Retrospective Exhibition Alexey Titarenko, Centre Culturel André Malraux, Nancy, France (in collaboration with Centre National de l'Audiovisuel, Luxemburg, EU) 
Time Standing Still, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Alexey Titarenko, White Square Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Alexey Titarenko, Venice-Paris, Apex Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA

2003
City of Shadows: Photographs of Petersburg by Alexey Titarenko, Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, Vermont
Saint Petersburg: La cité des ombres", Camera Obscura Gallery, Paris, France
Black and White Magic of Saint-Petersburg , Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD, USA
I quattro movimenti di San Pietroburgo, Spazio Foto, Credito Artigiano, Florence, Italy
Alexey Titarenko: St.Petersburg, Candace Perich Gallery, Katonah, NY, USA

2002
Alexey Titarenko: Four Movements of St. Petersburg, Reattu Museum, Arles International Photography Festival, Arles, France
Time Regained: Fragments from St. Petersburg series, Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow, Russia
City of Shadows, Photo-Eye gallery, Santa-Fe, NM, USA

2001
City of Shadows, Apex Fine Art Gallery, Absolut L.A. International Biennal, Los Angeles, CA USA

2000
Alexey Titarenko, Retrospective Exhibition, Galerie Municipale du Chateau d’Eau, Festival Garonne, Toulouse, France
Le Temps Inachevé, Nei Liicht Gallery, Dudelange, Luxemburg
Nomenklatura of Signs (audiovisual projection), Keep the light on ... , Centre National de l'Audiovisuel, Clerveaux Castle, Luxemburg.
Magician of St.Petersburg, Garry Edwards Gallery, Washington D.C., USA
Saint Peterbourg, Le Bellevue Exhibition Hall, International Festival of Photography Biarritz Terre d'Images, Biarritz, France

1999
Ville des Ombres: Alexey Titarenko, photographies, Musée de Nice, Galeries des Ponchettes, Nice, France.

1998
Trace of a Shadow: Dramatic Themes in St.Petersburg Photography at the End of the 20th Century, City Exhibition Hall on Okhta, St.Petersburg, Russia

1997
Black and White Magic of St.Petersburg, Fyodor Dostoevsky Museum, St.Petersburg, Russia

1996
Black and White Magic of St. Petersburg, Month of European Culture in St. Petersburg, The Grand Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society, St. Petersburg

1995
New Soviet Photography, Karlsruhe Art Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany
Self-Identification, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway

1994
City of Shadows, Gallery 21, Cultural Center Pushkinskaya 10, St.Petersburg

1993
Nomenklatura of Signs, Photopostcriptum project, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

1992
Experiences photographiques russes, Month of photography in Paris, Grand Ecran, Paris, France
Nomenklatura of Signs (audiovisual projection), Centre National de la Photography, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

1989-1990
Photostroyka: New Soviet Photography, Burden Gallery, Aperture Foundation, New York (followed by a three‐year U.S. tour)

1989
Nomenklatura of Signs, Ligovka-99 Exhibition Hall, Leningrad, URSS
Visages de Leningrad, Drouart Gallery, Paris, France

1986-1988
Participating in photographic festivals organized by the Baltic States: Valga-86, Valga, Estonia; Uzvara-87, Uzvara, Latvia; Bauska-88, Bauska, Latvia

1979-1988
Annual review exhibitions of Zerkalo Photographic Club, Kirov Palace of Culture (1979), Karl Marx Palace of Culture, Leningrad, USSR and solo exhibitions in 1983, 1986, 1988, Nevskiy Prospekt 90, Leningrad, URSS

 1978
Leningrad from another side, Zerkalo Photographic Club, Kirov Palace of Culture, Leningrad, USSR
Zerkalo Photographic Club Second exhibition, Kirov Palace of Culture, Leningrad, URSS

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France
Davis Museum at Wellesley college, Wellesley, MA
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Centre national de l’audiovisuel, Dudelange, Luxembourg
European House of Photography, Paris, France
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, FL
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT
Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia
Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Musée Reattu, Arles, France
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Arts, Columbus, OH
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
Museum of the City of New York, NY
Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL
Santa Barbara Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Barbara, CA
Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Theatre de la Photographie et de l'Image, Nice, France
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Tweed Museum of Art at University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN

BIOGRAPHY

Alexey Titarenko was born on Vassilievsky Island in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1962. He began taking pictures in 1971, at the age of nine, and graduated from the Leningrad Public University of Society-related Professions in 1978 with a degree in Photojournalism. That same year, Titarenko became a member of the independent photo club “Zerkalo” (The Mirror) and held his first solo exhibition. 

In 1983, Titarenko received a Master's degree in Cinematic and Photographic Arts from the Leningrad Institute of Culture. Two years later, he was dismissed from obligatory military service after having served eighteen months in the Soviet Army as an infantry soldier. He began work on the series of collages and photomontages Nomenklatura of Signs, a commentary on the Communist regime as an oppressive system hat converts citizens into mere signs and, by 1988, received his first solo exhibition in Western Europe, in Paris. Also, in 1989, Nomenklatura of Signs was included in Photostroyka, a major show of new Soviet photography that toured the US.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 he produced several series of photographs about the human condition of the Russian people during this time and the suffering they endured throughout the twentieth century. To illustrate links between the present and the past, he created powerful metaphors by introducing long exposure and intentional camera movement into street photography. The most well known series of this period is City of Shadows. In some images urban landscapes reiterate the Odessa Steps (also known as the Potemkin Stairs) scene from Sergei Eisenstein’s film Battleship Potemkin. Inspired by the music of Dmitri Shostakovich and the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, he also translated Dostoevsky’s version of the Russian soul into sometimes poetic, sometimes dramatic pictures of his native city, Saint Petersburg.

Titarenko’s St. Petersburg body of work from the 1990s won him worldwide recognition. In 2002 the International Photography Festival at Arles, France presented this work at the Reattu Museum in the exhibition, “Les quatres mouvements de St. Petersburg” curated by Gabriel Bauret. In 2005, the French-German TV Channel Arte produced a 30-minute documentary about Titarenko titled Alexey Titarenko: Art et la Maniere.

Titarenko’s prints are subtly crafted in the darkroom. Bleaching and toning add depth to his nuanced palette of grays, rendering each print a unique interpretation of his experience and imbuing his work with a personal and emotive visual character. This particular beauty was recently emphasized during the exhibition of his prints from his Havana series at the Getty Museum (Los Angeles, May-October 2011).

His works are in the collections of major European and American museums, including The State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg); The Getty Museum (Los Angeles); the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art; George Eastman House (Rochester, N.Y.); the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston); The Museum of Fine Arts (Columbus, Ohio); the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston); the Museum of Photographic Arts (San Diego); the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College (Mass.); the European House of Photography (Paris); the Southeast Museum of Photography (Daytona Beach, Fla.); the Santa Barbara Museum of Fin Arts (Cal.); the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (N.J.); the Reattu Museum of Fine Arts (Arles); and the Musee de l’Elysee Museum for Photography (Lausanne).