Leonid Sokov

Leonid Sokov (Russian: Леони́д Петро́вич Со́ков, born 11 October 1941, Tver region) is a Russian nonconformist artist and sculptor. He lives and works in New York City.

Life and work

Sokov was born in Mikhalevo in the Tver region, Russia in 1941 and graduated from the Stroganov Institute now called the Moscow School of Art and Industry, in 1969. He emigrated to the United States in 1980. His compositions are in the Pop style, adapted to Socialist Realism through the use of ideology as an object of consumption. He is closely related to the Sots art movement and he has worked with others in that genre including Dmitry Prigov, Alexander Kosolapov, and Rostislav Lebedev.

In 2001 he represented Russia at the Venice Biennale. He participated in the 2004 Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea.

In 2012, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMoMA) honored the artist's 70th birthday with a major retrospective and publication on the artist's career and work.

Public collections

• The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
• The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
• The Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMoMA), Moscow, Russia
• The National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, Russia
• The ART4.RU Museum of Contemporary Russian Art, Moscow, Russia
• The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, USA
• The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, USA
• The Cleveland Museum of Art, USA

References

• Leonid Sokov: Sculptures, Paintings, Objects, Installations, Documents, Articles, Moscow: The State Russian Museum, Palace Editions, 2000. ISBN 3-930775-71-9