Kon Trubkovich

Boesky East is pleased to present OCT. PM., an exhibition of new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Kon Trubkovich. This new body of work explores the construct of memory: the pieces remembered, obscured, imagined, and reconstructed and that together capture the essence of an event, a conversation, or a moment. The exhibition draws its name from a time stamp featured in one of the large-scale canvases and underscores the idea of a memory captured on film. OCT. PM. is Trubkovich’s fourth solo exhibition since joining the gallery in 2006.

Fragments drawn from the artist’s memory and a collection of home movies made by a family friend serve as the basis and inspiration for new visual narratives. A Soviet wallpaper print, an individual’s facial expression, a dinner party, or an uncertain recollection of a white fence are brought together into new wholes on the canvas, blurring the boundaries between the real and imaginary. The works in the show are connected by these common threads, but take the viewer into distinctly different directions. The layering of such elements in vividly contrasting hues results in the creation of luminescent portraits and interior scenes.

OCT. PM. represents a new area of exploration for Trubkovich, who is best known for his series of Mama and Ronnie portraits. In that series the artist dislocated the 24 frames that make up a single second of footage from their greater context, capturing and amplifying a specific and deeply meaningful moment for the artist and the global consciousness. With his new work, Trubkovich examines how the memory and experience of a moment can be altered in our own minds.

“This work deals with memory as a medium. It seems to me that we are nothing without our memories, yet the passage of time, our photo and video archives, our subsequent experiences alter our memories into personal inventions far from any objective truth. Our minds push to the fore some pieces. We forget others. We erase painful recollections. Others we willingly conjure or invent based on conversations, photos, family narratives,” said Trubkovich. “The new paintings bring together these fragments. There’s an inclusive, free-form quality to them that encapsulates how our minds process experience to shape who we are.”

Kon Trubkovich (B. 1979, Moscow, Russia) lives and work in Brooklyn, New York. In 2015, Trubkovich had solo exhibitions at the Josyln Museum of Art, Omaha, and at Moran Bondaroff Gallery, Los Angeles. Previously, he has exhibited at United Artists, Ltd., Marfa, Texas (solo, 2014); Palacio das Artes, Porto, Portugal (group, 2014); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois (group, 2013); and MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York (solo, 2006).