ABOUT

Born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), raised in Siberia and educated in Siberia and France, Max Sher started out as photojournalist and then moved on into art photography and installation, still also doing assignments for international print and online media. Sher is primarily interested in de-exoticizing the representation of post-Soviet built environment, architecture, and infrastructure, as well as in investigating local/problematic histories. His work was exhibited as part of solo and group shows both in Russia and internationally, including Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow Museum of Architecture, Triumph Gallery, Calvert22 Gallery, PERMM, Yeltsin Center, Yekaterina Foundation, Format Festival, and Noorderlicht, and is included in public and private collections in Russia. As a photographer, Sher has worked on assignments for The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Bloomberg Businessweek, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Die Welt, Monocle, Le Monde, Libération, Financial Times Weekend, etc. Sher is the author of a number of artist books and zines, including A Remote Barely Audible Evening Waltz (Treemedia Publishers, 2013), Palimpsests (Ad Marginem Press, 2018), 245 Khrushchev Housing Entrances (self-published in 4 editions, 2018-20), Dictatorship of the Seven Seas (2018), and Infrastructures, a joint photobook with Sergey Novikov published in 2019 under their own small publishing brand RecurrentBooks. Since 2021 Max Sher is based in Berlin.

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Solo Exhibitions:

Commentary on the Landscape, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, May-June 2021

Invisible Landscape, ROSPHOTO Museum, St. Petersburg, 2020

Archipelago, Metenkov House of Photography, Yekaterinburg, 2019

America / Horizon, Zarya Artist-in-Residence, Vladivostok, 2017

Palimpsests (Origin of Views), MUAR Museum of Architecture, Moscow, Dec 2014 - Jan 2015

Map and Territory, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, 2014

A Remote Barely Audible Evening Waltz book launch and one-day show, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, 2013

Kars, Fotodepartament, St.Petersburg, 2010

Kronstadt: Dreaming of the Past, Fotodepartament, St.Petersburg, 2008

 

Group Exhibitions/Screenings/Book Launches/Collaborations:

2023

Uncharted Shores: Post-Soviet Photography in Transition, National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan, February 8—March 1

Keep your Eyes Peeled, AFF Gallery, Berlin, April 28-30

Summer Academy of Political Imagination, Nikšić, Montenegro, June 16-21

2021

Infrastructures as part of Practice of Place: Landscapes, Distances, Infrastructures, CC-19, Novosibirsk

Elements of Landscape, as part of 48 Hours Novosibirsk Festival of Contemporary Art, Novosibirsk

Infrastructures, Format21 Festival, Derby, UK

New Russian Landscape, Yaroslavl Museum of Arts, Yaroslavl

2020

New Landscape, Nordic Light Festival of Photography, Kristiandsund, Norway

New Landscape, Trondheim Dokumentarfestival, Norway

What Was Seen Without Light, Yeltsin Center, Yekaterinburg

2019

A Remote Barely Audible Evening Waltz, as part of The Human Condition: Session V, Moscow Museum of Modern Art

Infrastructures book launch, Moscow Museum of Modern Art  

Infrastructures, as part of Taxed to the Max, Noorderlicht Int'l Photography Festival Photography, Groningen

Palimpsests as part of New Landscape, State Museum of Art, Kazan

Palimpsests as part of New Landscape, Ekaterina Foundation, Moscow

2018

Palimpsests as part New Landscape, Krasnoyarsk Museum

Ban on Image as part Silent Voices, Krasnoyarsk Museum

Palimpsests as part of New Landscape, PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm

Dictatorship of the Seven Seas, as part of Fringes, VDNKh + Triumph Gallery, Moscow

Palimpsests as part of New Landscape, Ivan Slovtsov Museum, Tyumen

Palimpsests, as part of ICP – Projected, ICP – International Center of Photography, New York

Palimpsests and Horizon as part of Metageography III, Zarya Center for Contemporary Art, Vladivostok

245 Khrushchev Building Entrances, as part of City Archive, Bogorodskoye Gallery, Moscow

Palimpsests book at Athens Photo Book Festival

Palimpsests book at Istanbul Photo Book Festival

Palimpsests book launch, Bildband Berlin

Palimpsests book launch and one-day show, Triumph Gallery, Moscow

Palimpsests as part of New Landscape, Yeltsin Center, Yekaterinburg

2017

Map and Territory as part of Phantom Pain Clinic at Jimei-Arles Int'l Photo Festival, Xiamen

Horizon as part of Metageography II, Pushkin House, London

Ban on Image as part of Silent Voices, National Center for Contemporary Art and St. Petersburg Museum of History, St. Petersburg

2016

Infrastructural Ethnography (a collaboration with Antonina Shadrina) as part of group show Permafrost, National Museum of Art, Yakutsk, 

245 Khruschev Building Entrances as part of Inner Modernism, a group show as part of the Parallel Program to the 5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Ground Peschanaya Gallery, Moscow

A Remote Barely Audible Evening Waltz book as part of Special Edition: Russian Photobook Show, Metenkov House of Photography, Yekaterinburg

Map and Territory as part of Metageography, special project to the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow 

2015

Surface of Writing (a collaboration with Alina Belishkina), Vertical Gallery, St. Petersburg

Mari.Research / Chuvash. Research, a group show as part of Triumph Gallery's multidisciplinary initiative Department of Research Arts, Winzavod, Moscow

Palimpsests as part of Close and Far: Russian Photography Now, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry

2014

Palimpsests as part of Close and Far: Russian Photography Now, Calvert 22 Gallery, London

Palimpsests as part of Urban Landscapes, P46 Gallery, Camogli

Palimpsests as part of the Uglich International Photo Festival, Uglich

Palimpsests as part of Moskovia. Research, Museum of Applied Arts, Moscow

2008-2013

A Remote Barely Audible Evening Waltz book as part of Unfolding Images, Contemporary Art Center New Orleans, 2013

Residence Permit (with Egor Zaika), Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2012

Madre Russia, Museo Civico, Asolo, 2012

Vice Photo Show 2012, Photohub_Manometr, Moscow, 2012

EAST: Young Eastern European Photography, Kaunas, 2011

Photomonth Cracow, 2011

Kaunas Photo Festival, 2010

2nd Moscow Biennale of Architecture, a commission for Praktika Architects, Moscow, 2010

EAST: Young Eastern European Photography, Central European House of Photography, Bratislava, 2010 

Young Russian Photography, Manege Central Exhibitions Hall, St. Petersburg, 2009

Aleppo Int’l Photo Festival, 2009

2Young, Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2009

EAST: Young Eastern European Photography, by Anzenberger Agency, Brick5, Vienna, 2008

 

BOOKS & ZINES

Infrastructures, a joint project with Sergey Novikov, 2019

245 Khruschev Building Entrances, self-published, 2018, 2019

Dictatorship of the Seven Seas, a zine commissioned for the group show Fringes, VDNKh + Triumph Galery, 2018

A Remote Barely Audible Evening Waltz, Treemedia Publishers, Moscow, 2013

Palimpsests, Ad Marginem Press, Moscow, 2018

See Books & More on this website.

 

ARTIST RESIDENCIES AND AWARDS

2019 - Metenkov House of Photography, Yekaterinburg

2017 - Zarya Artist-in-Residence, Vladivostok

2015 -  Shortlist, Barcelona International Photography Awards (BIPA)

           Shortlist, Athens Photo Festival (2 projects)

           Artist Residency in Kronstadt, National Center for Contemporary Art

2013 - Finalist, Cord Prize

2008 - Nominated for KLM Paul Huf Award

 

SELECTED RECENT ARTIST TALKS, CONFERENCE TALKS, AND SCHOOLS

Earth & Writing, a Study of the Anthropocene, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, July 2019, Moscow

Artist talk, Metenkov House of Photography, March 2019, Yekaterinburg,

Architecture as Landscape, Artist vs. Architect, artist talk with architect Yury Grigoryan as part of the public program for the group show New Landscape, February 2019, Ekaterina Foundation, Moscow

Infrastructures, artist talk with Sergey Novikov at Higher School of Economics, Cultural Studies Department, February 2019, Moscow

Russian Punk Ethnography School, January 2019, St. Petersburg

Experiment and Experimentality in Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Research Conference, May 2018, Moscow State University, Faculty of History

Palimpsests book launch & artist talk, March 2018, Yeltsin Center, Yekaterinburg

Public Program as part of the group show Silent Voices, Nov 2018, Krasnoyarsk Museum

Public Program as part of the group show New Landscape, Oct 2018, Ivan Slovtsov Museum, Tyumen

Martha Rosler’s Field Research Faculty, November 2017, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow

Public History in Russia: Museums for the Past or the Past for the Museums Conference, June 2017, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow

Infrastructures, May 2017, Zarya Center for Contemporary Art, Vladivostok

Infrastructures, April 2017, IZONE, Kiev

Palimpsests, March 2017, Yeltsin Center, Yekaterinburg

 

CONTACT

Email: maxim.sher@gmail.com

Mobile+Whatsapp+Telegram: +49 178 179 5072

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