Vladislav Markov – Russian artist born in 1993 – with his solo exhibition “blood thinner, low-dose aspirin, best painkillers for kids”, transforms The Address gallery in Brescia into a perceptual labyrinth where reality is systematically disassembled and reassembled. The project, the result of a year of work between the United States and Italy, presents works that oscillate between painting, sculpture and sound installation, challenging the traditional notion of the ready-made and reducing it to an ontological residue: objects existing in a state of continuous transition, between digital and physical, familiar and alien, concrete and imagined.

Vladislav Markov, “blood thinner, low-dose aspirin, best painkillers for kids”, exhibition view at The Address Art Gallery, 2024, courtesy the artist and The Address Art Gallery, Brescia, ph. Alberto Favara

Markov’s approach is never purely formal; his work is rooted in a philosophical tension that interrogates the identity of objects and their capacity to generate meaning. Low-resolution photogrammetric scans and 3D manipulations serve to strip objects of their original function, pushing them toward an ambiguity state of that forces the audience to reconsider its relationship with perception. The result is an aesthetic universe occupying the gray zone between recognition and disorientation, where perception is continuously challenged. The choice of a former bank building as the exhibition venue amplifies this sense of dislocation. The artist rearticulates the rationalist space into a fragmented journey where each room represents a variation of an unsolvable enigma. Traditional access is denied, forcing visitors to enter through a side door that leads them into a labyrinth of five rooms. The architecture, thus transformed, is not merely a container but an integral part of the artistic discourse: a bureaucratic illusion that turns movement through space into a Sisyphean progression.

Vladislav Markov, “Thank me I didnt do it earlier andyes you can message”, pigment, acrylic on canvas, 183 x 350 cm, 2024, courtesy the artist and The Address Art Gallery, Brescia, ph. Alberto Favara

Markov draws from his personal experiences and the post-Soviet context to feed an imaginary world composed of fragments and transfigured memories. Every element of the exhibition, from masked self-portraits to digitally recreated sculptures, takes shape as a residue of a deconstruction process that never offers a return to reality. The objects populating the exhibition path seem imbued with a history that, once reworked, becomes unrecognizable yet no less charged with emotional tension. It is as though Markov delves into both collective and personal memory, only to distill images that exist in a constant state of alteration. The obsessive rhythm of a voice, echoing persistently through the space, accompanies visitors on this descent into the rabbit hole. The works, positioned with almost surgical precision, transform each room into a perceptual trap, a playground suffused with nostalgia and unease.

Vladislav Markov, “I eat breakfast in the morning”, steaticam, plastic, fabric, variable dimensions, 2024; “blood thinner, low-dose aspirin, best painkillers for kids”, installation view (“Alex Katz still owes me money. $262.5”, pigment, acrylic on canvas, 220 x 183 cm), The Address Art Gallery, 2024, courtesy the artist and The Address Art Gallery, Brescia, ph. Alberto Favara

The final room, visible only through iron bars, culminates in a spectral image: an indistinct silhouette illuminated by blinding light, a vision that amplifies the sense of absence and leaves the viewer suspended in irresolvable tension. Markov offers no answers or conclusions; instead, he creates an experience that challenges perception and memory, leaving the audience to confront the fragility and uncertainty of what we consider real. His exhibition, with its destabilizing precision, forces us to reckon with our own gaze, pushing us toward a mental space where reality, now liquefied, dissolves into a continuous play of echoes and absences.

Info:

Vladislav Markov. “blood thinner, low-dose aspirin, best painkillers for kids”
15/11 2024 – 26/01 2025
The Address Art gallery
Via Felice Cavallotti 5, Brescia
www.theaddressgallery.com

Massimiliano Bastardo

Art Curator and Art Advisor, graduated in Visual Arts and Cultural Mediation, with Master in Curatorial Practices, born in 1995, lives in Naples. He collaborates with Galleries and Independent Spaces, his research is mainly focused on Emerging Painting, with a careful and inclined gaze also on other forms of aesthetic language.