Valery Chtak

Valery Chtak was born in Moscow in 1981, where he still lives and works. As far as Chtak can remember, he has always been an artist. However, it was not until the end of the 90's when Chtak found his black and white painting style, an artistic language that he continues to explore to this day. Around that time, Chtak spent time with some friends at the informal school of contemporary art, founded by Avdey Ter-Oganyan. 

Between 2000 and 2005, he joined the Radek community, an artist association that was committed to organizing cutting- edge performances. These events were conducted by the artist Anatoly Osmolovsky and called “anti-spectacular" in reference to the French thinker Guy Debord. All the while, Chtak continued to work on his own series of solo projects. 

In 2007, he was part of the group exhibition Moscopolis, taking place in the Espace culturel Louis Vuitton in Paris. This show introduced a selection of artists, all who play a key role in the new contemporary art scene in Moscow. In 2008, he created a monumental site specific installation for the group exhibition Invasion/Evasion organised by the Red October Chocolate Factory in Moscow. 

He was nominated for the State Contemporary Art Award “Innovation" (project “Truth Only", 2011). The artist's works are held in the collections of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantin Sorokin Foundation, as well as in the private collections of Pierre Brochet, Andrey Tretyakov, Samir Sabet D'Acre and others.