Narrative Biography
Slava Mogutin is a New York-based Russian-American artist, who works across photography, video, text, performance, sculpture, and painting.
Born Ярослав Юрьевич Могутин (Yaroslav Yurievich Mogutin) in the industrial city of Kemerovo, Siberia, he moved to Moscow at age 14. He soon began working as a journalist and editor for the first independent Russian newspapers, publishers and radio stations. By the age of 21, he had gained both critical acclaim and official condemnation for his outspoken queer writings and activism. Charged with “open and deliberate contempt for generally accepted moral norms,” “malicious hooliganism with exceptional cynicism and extreme insolence,” “inflaming social, national, and religious division,” “propaganda of brutal violence, psychic pathology, and sexual perversions”—he became the target of two highly publicized criminal cases, carrying a potential prison sentence of up to seven years. In April 1994, Mogutin attempted to register officially the first same-sex marriage in Russia with his then-partner, American artist Robert Filippini. The attempt made headlines around the world, but only further fueled his persecution by the authorities.
Forced to leave Russia in March 1995, he was granted political asylum in the U.S. with the support of Amnesty International and PEN American Center, among other prominent human rights groups. Upon his arrival in New York, Mogutin shifted his focus to visual art and started using his nickname Slava—"glory" or "fame" in Russian—as his artist name. Informed by his bicultural literary and dissident background, as well as his extensive travels around the world, the themes of his work encompass urban youth subcultures and adolescent sexuality; the clash of social norms and individual desires; transgressive, radical expressions of masculinity and gender crossover; cultural alienation and political discontent; the tension between attachment and loneliness, violence and love.
Since 1999, Mogutin's photography and multimedia work have been exhibited internationally, including MoMA PS1 and Museum of Arts and Design in New York; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco; Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston; Moscow Museum of Modern Art; Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam; Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen; Estonian KUMU Art Museum in Tallinn; The Haifa Museum of Art in Israel; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC) in Spain.
Mogutin's fine art, as well as commissioned portraits and fashion editorials, have been featured in a wide range of publications, including Flash Art, ArtUS, Modern Painters, i-D, Visionaire, L’Officiel Hommes, L’Uomo Vogue, Stern, and The New York Times. He is a regular contributor to several art and lifestyle magazines such as Flaunt, Vice, and Whitewall.
In 2004, together with his partner and collaborator Brian Kenny, Mogutin co-founded SUPERM, a multimedia art team responsible for site-specific gallery and museum shows in the U.S. and across Europe.
Mogutin is the author of two hardcover monographs of photography, Lost Boys and NYC Go-Go (powerHouse Books, 2006 and 2008), and seven books of writings published in Russian. In 2000, he was awarded the Andrei Bely Prize, the most prestigious unofficial literary award in Russia. His poetry, fiction, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies in eight languages. He has translated into Russian selected works of Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Dennis Cooper.
Mogutin has lectured extensively throughout the U.S. and participated in panel discussions and sipmosiums at Columbia University, Yale, Harvard, Harriman Institute, Grinnell College, Stevens Institute of Technology, Middlebury College, The New School, and School of Visual Arts.
As an actor Mogutin appeared in Bruce LaBruce’s Skin Flick (1999) and Laura Colella’s independent feature Stay Until Tomorrow (2004). He was included in the OUT100 list of the most influential personalities by the American OUT Magazine (2006) and named one of the Top 10 best young photographers by the Israeli Haaretz Magazine (2010).
In September 2011, after over 16 years of living in the States first as a political refugee and then as a permanent resident, Mogutin became a U.S. citizen. He is currently at work on his third book of photography.