«We don't choose time, we live and die ...». Alexander Kushner, 1978.

People began to share details of their private lives long before the Instagram was invented. One of the most ancient avatars was the Egyptian relief in the Amarna Palace, depicting Akhenaten and Nefertiti playing with children.

The genre art reflects interest of artists in everyday life; it fulfills their need to escape from the epic and lofty religious and historical subjects.

The art of Holland of the XVII century is the closest to the contemporary viewer — then the artists deviated of religious topics and started thoroughly describing the life and customs of their contemporaries. In fact, that was the moment the Instagram was invented. The artists utterly depicted their daily affairs, especially parties and revels with abundance of food and alcohol. At that time, such revelations proved financial well-being, so people were eating and drinking not only in plenty, but also beyond the measure. They showed off similar things that we do now. In Russian art the responsibility for sarcasm and genre painting rested with Pavel Fedotov, the artist of the first half of the XIX century, who died early, but left a number of archetypal art subjects that are still well-recognized, such as The Aristocrat’s Breakfast.

The current exhibition features works by young artists. Their interest in everyday life does not mean photographing an obese woman in the subway and uploading the picture in social networks. Their interest is to remember that woman and then to paint her portrait or cast her in porcelain. The taken efforts give the woman even greater weight and timelessness. She becomes both the woman, sleeping in the subway, and the goddess of the underworld, the ancient Roman Proserpine.

Sofia Minina and Ivan Asinovsky appreciate the beauty of everyday life, which they ironically immortalize in art. The artists archive daily life and banality in painting and sculpture, just like amber tar preserves the extinct insects. 

The title of the exhibition “Supply of Darkness” explains what seems to be beyond the scope of everyday life and simultaneously forms it. It is a global arrangement of the world with wars, injustice and bad weather. The reserve of darkness is stored in each person's subconscious. Sometimes it breaks out, and we fail to control our own actions.

The popular culture of the last decade has taught us that we are beautiful just the way we are. It assures us that the world will bow down in front of our needs. So we lose the ability to adequately assess ourselves. This boundless power over the child is shown in New Madonna by Sofia Minina. This outsized strength of women holing a drunken man is seen in the sculptural composition March 8 by Ivan Asinovsky. The artists invite us to look at ourselves honestly from the sidelines, drawing attention to the fact that God is in the details.