PROHIBITED ART
An exhibition accumulating works that faced extreme censorship and persecution.
From September 2024 to September 2025, we provide an online space for works that authors cannot demonstrate in their countries. The exposition is understood as dynamic, i.e. works can be added during the entire duration of the exhibition until its finish.
The nowdays world is still harsh on dissenters, same to it was in the past. Artists are especially intensively persecuted in dictatorships, where artists can easily be imprisoned and even put to death because of their arts. Denial of the right to freedom of expression is often masked by the need to maintain public order or issues of tolerance. But if an artist is persecuted by fanatics, he often does not find support or protection from the authorities.
If you are an artist and would like to participate in this exhibition, please send an application in free form to [email protected]
In the application, specify your name, country of residence, social media contact, a preview of your work (or works) with a brief description of why the work cannot be shown in your country.
There is no organizational fee for participation in the exhibition, but we expect you announce your participation and mark us in your social media.
The organizer reserves the right to accept or not accept the submitted artwork at its discretion.
Artists (list is being updated):
Pavel Krasheninin
Olya Lukoye
Artist Olya Lukoye (now lives in Kazakhstan). She uses national motifs and technics in her works. The painting was banned from the exhibition in Russia because of «devilry», as «insulting the feelings of Christians one».
Nikita Pozdnyakov
When representatives of the nationalist organization of Russian religious fanatics «International Foundation of Slavic Writing and Culture» saw the painting of Nikita Pozdnyakov on the Internet, they wrote a denunciation addressed to the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Bastrykin.
In the document, they accused the artist of insulting the religious feelings of Russian citizens – in their opinion, he «thoughtlessly and carelessly handled Christian symbols» and should have been held accountable for this.
Nikita Pozdnyakov believes that he was lucky, because the complaint from Moscow was returned to the artist’s hometown (Omsk), and the local investigative committee did not find an art critic who could conduct an examination of the painting.
Giorgos Sykomytellis
The hand crafted wooden shrine of Giorgos Sykomytellis was made for the Church of St. Anna (Skala Kallonis,Lesbos, Greece), but after a while it was desecrated by religious fanatics who claimed that they were “cleaning the Temple of the Lord.” After a while, due to the inaction of the police and the indifference of the city authorities, the work was almost completely destroyed.
The author was able to restore the work, but the fact is: the fanatics who encroached on the work of art went unpunished.
«Shrine»
Wood, woodcarving