ABOUT
Born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), raised in Siberia and educated in Siberia and France, Max Sher is primarily interested in de-exoticising the representation of built environment, architecture, and infrastructure, as well as in investigating local/problematic histories. His work was exhibited as part of solo and group shows at Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow Museum of Architecture, AFF Gallery, Calvert22 Gallery, Format Festival, Noorderlicht, Triumph Gallery, PERMM, Yeltsin Center, Yekaterina Foundation. 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. Max Sher is based in Berlin since 2021.
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