A contemporary Kazakhstani artist, a member of the art group "Night Tram" (1987). His works include paintings, graphics, photography, video, installations, performances, and texts. Key methods in S. Maslov’s practice include myth-making, provocation, parody, and absurdity. Key ideas are the post-Soviet space, globalisation, consumer culture, patriarchy, nomadism, myth, and eroticism.
S. Maslov graduated from the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University (Faculty of Art and Graphics, 1973–1978) and the Institute of Art Education and Cultural Studies of the Russian Academy of Education (IHOIK RAO; postgraduate studies, Moscow, 1983–1986). He taught painting at the Semipalatinsk State Pedagogical Institute (1978–1980) and the Kazakh National Academy of Arts named after Temirbek Zhurgenov (Almaty, 1988–1998).
His teaching experience was closely intertwined with his artistic practice. He created performances to encourage young artists toward experimentation ("Solar Wind", Semipalatinsk, 1998) and took on the role of a shaman initiating participants into the world of contemporary art ("Drawings for the Demiurge", "Art Discourse-97 Seminar on the Theory and Practice of Contemporary Art", Almaty, 1997). S. Maslov used absurd theatre and myth-making, visualising the allegory of “the artist painting with blood” ("East Is a Subtle Thing", 1998), and parodying beauty cults ("Gioconda", 2000), love, and parasocial relationships ("2003 Year", 1998). His works also address the tension between East and West ("Judith", 1997) and reimagine nomadism in a cosmic future ("Baikonur-2", 2001).
S. Maslov’s works were exhibited in Kazakhstan and abroad, including posthumously: "Zhiger. Exhibition of Young Artists of Kazakhstan" (Union of Artists of Kazakhstan, Almaty, 1978); "Artist and the City" (Exhibition Hall of the United Trade Union Committee of Graphic Artists, Moscow, 1982); "Maslov Near Art, About Literature" (Fine Arts and Technical Design School named after A. Kasteyev, Almaty, 1998); "New Acquisitions from Central Asia: Selections from the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union" (Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey, 2001); "Sergey Maslov. East Is a Subtle Thing to Understand" (Stuttgarter Kunstverein, Stuttgart, 2002); "Re-Orientation: Kunst zu Mittelasien" (ACC Gallery, Weimar, 2002); "Maslov & Co." (National Museum of Fine Arts named after Gapar Aitiev, Bishkek, 2004); 51st Venice Biennale (Venice, 2005); and "Star Nomad" (National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana, 2017).
Information about S. Maslov is stored in the Documentation project collections — the archives of Elena and Viktor Vorobyev and the Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty (SCCA).
Photograph provided by Yelena and Viktor Vorobyev