Oleg Kulik

Russia’s best-known performance artist, Oleg Kulik (born 1961) has long been famed for his raw performances, which often express a kind of ‘howl’ against the constraints of civilization. With full-bleed reproductions on every page, this massive volume documents his performances of the 1990s.

This 368-page monograph is the first substantial publication in 15 years to take on Russia's most famous performance artist, Oleg Kulik. Also a sculptor and curator, Kulik is most renowned for his disconcerting performances as a dog. Art in America reviewed his 1997 solo exhibition at New York's Deitch Projects thus: ""On a sunny afternoon, Oleg Kulik emerged from the dark cage where he had spent the preceding two weeks on public view, living a dog's life in a gallery. Naked except for a studded leather collar, he had romped on hands and knees, eaten from bowls, slept on a mat and uttered only guttural growlsÖ Kulik's past performances as a dog include a turn as Pavlov's pet in a laboratory where he was subjected to the sort of behavioral experiments routinely endured by lab animals. Most notorious was a Stockholm exhibition in which Kulik bit several visitors (including an art critic), leading to his arrest at the request of the curator.