When the USSR collapsed and millions of former Soviet citizens became immigrants, those who were at a formative age range at the time had a unique set of experiences that were shared by neither their parents, nor those who came after them. Weaned very suddenly from the stability of their homeland’s culture and language at a time when they were too young to coherently express their particular experiences, the artists among them have developed a vision unlike any other. Twenty years later, the last Soviet children living in diaspora are a universal presence, and an under-studied phenomenon. Whatever degree of abstraction defines their thinking, self-identification, and work, it is all in one sense or another the self-portraiture of individuals seeking for themselves in a great existential sea of sweeping change, absorbing and expressing the psychology of otherness as a fundamental part of their identity, and attempting to find a context for themselves. Distanced From the Source is a group show of 5 artists who were born and partially raised in the Soviet Union, and who have lived in diaspora for roughly the last 20 years. Their work explores the themes of otherness-as-identity through the mediums of photography, painting, video installation, and recorded oral history.

                       Irina Khokhlova - PORTRAITS - Video 11' with sound 2011

Viktoria Sorochinski - Yana & Aidan - from the series SILENT DIALOG, 2011 Archival Pigment Fiber Print Image size: 40’’x 40’’ Edition: 1/5 + 2AP

Viktoria Sorochinski - Laura & Nikolo - from the series SILENT DIALOG, 2011 Archival Pigment Fiber Print Image size: 23’’x 23’’ Edition: 1/10 + 2AP

Viktoria Sorochinski - Leonid & Tamara - from the series SILENT DIALOG, 2011 Archival Pigment Fiber Print Image size: 23’’x 23’’ Edition: 1/10 + 2AP

Anya Roz - Anna (and her grandmother) - from the series ANCESTOR BLUEPRINT, Israel, 2011 C Print Image size: 16’’x 20’’ Edition: 1/8

Anya Roz - Masha (with her grandmother and mother) - from the series ANCESTOR BLUEPRINT, New York, 2011 C Print Image size: 16’’x 20’’ Edition: 1/8

Anya Roz - Polina (and her grandmother) - from the series ANCESTOR BLUEPRINT, New York, 2011 C Print Image size: 16’’x 20’’ Edition: 1/8

Dan Veksler - Insinuating Circumstances - video 18.5’ Edition 1/10 2011

Dan Veksler - Insinuating Circumstances - video 18.5’ Edition 1/10 2011

Polina Barskaya - My Alona - Watercolor on Paper. 2011

                   Polina Barskaya - Flora and Polya - Watercolor on Paper. 2011

                  Polina Barskaya - Vacation - Watercolor on Paper. 2011