YURI AVVAKUMOV is best known as an architect, artist, and curator. Avvakumov was born in Tiraspol in 1957. He graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute in 1981. Since 1984 he has curated, organised and participated in Paper Architecture exhibitions in Ljubljana, Paris, Milan, London, Frankfurt, Antwerp, Cologne, Brussels, Zurich, Cambridge, Austin, and Moscow. The concept of Paper Architecture, which Avvakumov himself introduced into the vocabulary of art criticism, has entered the history of architecture and also the history of modern Russian art, as a genre of Soviet conceptual design that was typical of the 80's.
Created between 1996 and 2000 Avvakumov's installation "Russian Utopia: a Depository" is devoted to Russian architectural designs that have never been built. This fascinating installation has been displayed at the Venice Biennial, the Dutch Architectural Institute, Rotterdam, the State Museum of Architecture, Moscow, the Museum Exhibition Centre, Volgograd, and the Russian State Museum in Saint Petersburg.
In 1986, the artist started a series entitled: "TEMPORARY MONUMENTS", which was dedicated to the constructivism of the 20's. This series was inspired by Russian Avant-Garde figures from the 20's such as Popova, Rozanova, Melnikov and Tatlin. Avvakumov produced a number of objects as well as a limited edition series of prints as a part of this project. Selected works from the “Temporary Monuments” series have been exhibited at museums and galleries in Moscow, Washington, Paris, Saint Petersburg, Cologne, Karlsruhe, Friedrichshafen, Venice, and Milan between 1998 and 2000.
From 1996 to 1999, Avvakumov curated and designed a number of exhibitions at the Moscow House of Photography. He took up photography professionally in 1999.
The exhibition MiSCeLLaNeouS is a good illustration of Avvakumov's interest in constructivist photography on the one hand and the city as a complex environmental organism on the other. His preferred photographic themes are very similar to those that populate his architectural and artistic designs: wooden scaffolding and cranes, staircases and fences, trolleybus cables and advertising slogans, engineering works and historical monuments, walls and bridges. These symbolic, typological, historical and cultural layers are masterfully melded together by this photographer/architect to depict and capture the essence of the living urban fabric.

Yuri Avvakumov
"Tower",
1986-98
42X59cm





Yuri Avvakumov
1989-95
42X59cm

Yuri Avvakumov
"Tribune for the Leninist" - a modern updated reconstruction of Lenin's Tribune originally design by E. Lissitzin in 1924, 1988-93
42X59cm

Yuri Avvakumov
"The Flying Proletarian" - in homage to Vladimir Mayakovsky – a swing for open air exercises. This installation is devised for two teams. Each team has its own seat equipped with its own lever, which propels a pair of wings. The team which is most effective at working their levers/wings will swing the highest. 1989-1994
42X59cm

Museum collections:
The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; The State Museum of Architecture, Moscow;  Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt-on-Main; The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The ZKM Museum of New Art, Karlsruhe; The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto.

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