EXHIBITION
ABOUT
Syntax Gallery is pleased to present a new project by Kirill Lebedev (Kto).
“The question of artistic work is connected for me with the question of how I lived while not writing, that is, not stitching together—slowly composing—in theme, in rhythm, in word, in paint,” wrote Andrei Bely in 1930 in his essay for the collective volume How We Write, devoted to the productive side of the creative process.
Kirill Lebedev began as a street artist—street art having inherited much from the early twentieth-century avant-garde—and his practice has always maintained a connection to the texts of the Russian Futurists and to the verbal experiments of their successors. Another remark by the eminent writer, made nearly a hundred years ago—“Time spent, which seemed aimless, turned out to be planned work”—directly relates to Lebedev’s new series in the exhibition Work Instead.
As in his previous projects—Attempt to Compensate (2020), Slightly More Than Familiar (2021), All Is Clear to All (2023), Drugoye (2025)—Lebedev’s artistic statement takes the form of aphoristic linguistic play combined with vibrant, multi-coloured painterly plasticity. Yet here the artist’s internal monologue becomes more explicit. The new series appears almost as a friendly gesture, introducing the viewer to the artist’s everyday life. Each painting is “made instead of,” followed by a phrase that could easily form a to-do list: “call a friend,” “go to the pull-up bar,” “lie on the couch,” “watch series,” “pet the cat.” From this emerges a sympathetic and recognisable image of a person much like any of us—unless we remember that a contemporary artist is capable of turning even the simplest activities into part of their work. A familiar form of procrastination—web surfing and Googling—was previously employed by Lebedev in the project Verification (2021), where each word written by the artist was accompanied by the number of internet search results it generated.
“The question of artistic work is connected for me with the question of how I lived while not writing, that is, not stitching together—slowly composing—in theme, in rhythm, in word, in paint,” wrote Andrei Bely in 1930 in his essay for the collective volume How We Write, devoted to the productive side of the creative process.
Kirill Lebedev began as a street artist—street art having inherited much from the early twentieth-century avant-garde—and his practice has always maintained a connection to the texts of the Russian Futurists and to the verbal experiments of their successors. Another remark by the eminent writer, made nearly a hundred years ago—“Time spent, which seemed aimless, turned out to be planned work”—directly relates to Lebedev’s new series in the exhibition Work Instead.
As in his previous projects—Attempt to Compensate (2020), Slightly More Than Familiar (2021), All Is Clear to All (2023), Drugoye (2025)—Lebedev’s artistic statement takes the form of aphoristic linguistic play combined with vibrant, multi-coloured painterly plasticity. Yet here the artist’s internal monologue becomes more explicit. The new series appears almost as a friendly gesture, introducing the viewer to the artist’s everyday life. Each painting is “made instead of,” followed by a phrase that could easily form a to-do list: “call a friend,” “go to the pull-up bar,” “lie on the couch,” “watch series,” “pet the cat.” From this emerges a sympathetic and recognisable image of a person much like any of us—unless we remember that a contemporary artist is capable of turning even the simplest activities into part of their work. A familiar form of procrastination—web surfing and Googling—was previously employed by Lebedev in the project Verification (2021), where each word written by the artist was accompanied by the number of internet search results it generated.
The project Work Instead carries the shade of idleness inherent in any artistic practice and something of the atmosphere of school holidays, recalling that all street art authors and crews were once—and inwardly remain—“kids with spray cans.” One may “Get up and leave for the city / Or fall asleep before breakfast,” as Igor Terentyev wrote in his poetic treatise 17 Absurd Tools. The Futurist books of the 1910s were marked by carefree freedom in arranging letters and typographic composition, and likewise the phrases on Lebedev’s canvases are not merely for viewing: they lend themselves—indeed are intended—for loud reading aloud. At the same time, the artist continues a line significant to Moscow Conceptualism and Actionism—the overcoming of failure and self-distrust has been a crucial theme in art from Ilya Kabakov to Alexander Brener.
Lebedev enumerates possible occupations and lists everything that might help avoid the appearance of yet another work on canvas or paper—yet in doing so he already creates it. The phrase “This work is made only so as not to make that other one, under no circumstances” closes the circle. Contemporary art has expanded the notion of an artist’s “work” to include everything from the emergence of an idea to the transfer of a piece into a collection. What constitutes artistic labour? This is the central question Kirill Lebedev raises in his new project, offering his own response in the spirit of the concept of “surrogate activity” proposed by Theodore Kaczynski. Known not only as the “Unabomber,” but also as a philosopher, recluse, and environmental thinker, Kaczynski argued that power or the system substitutes genuine goals and distracts individuals from their true purpose—the pursuit of freedom and a natural state of being. The profession of the artist is conventionally considered “free,” although the term “precariat” from economic theory has long become shorthand for social vulnerability and unstable employment. One canvas in the new series reads: “This work was made because not making it was simply impossible.
” Kirill Lebedev finds precise words for what he has always known about the true motivation of the artist.
Lebedev enumerates possible occupations and lists everything that might help avoid the appearance of yet another work on canvas or paper—yet in doing so he already creates it. The phrase “This work is made only so as not to make that other one, under no circumstances” closes the circle. Contemporary art has expanded the notion of an artist’s “work” to include everything from the emergence of an idea to the transfer of a piece into a collection. What constitutes artistic labour? This is the central question Kirill Lebedev raises in his new project, offering his own response in the spirit of the concept of “surrogate activity” proposed by Theodore Kaczynski. Known not only as the “Unabomber,” but also as a philosopher, recluse, and environmental thinker, Kaczynski argued that power or the system substitutes genuine goals and distracts individuals from their true purpose—the pursuit of freedom and a natural state of being. The profession of the artist is conventionally considered “free,” although the term “precariat” from economic theory has long become shorthand for social vulnerability and unstable employment. One canvas in the new series reads: “This work was made because not making it was simply impossible.
” Kirill Lebedev finds precise words for what he has always known about the true motivation of the artist.
Pavel Gerasimenko
ARTIST
Kirill Lebedev, also known by the nickname Kto, meaning ‘Who’ in Russian, (b. 1984, Zelenograd, Russia) is a cult figure in Moscow’s street art subculture, and has contributed to it both through his diverse artistic practice and as one of the few theorists and curators of street art. He was a member of the Zachem art collective (2002–2009) and No Future Forever art collective (2005–2009), and co-curated The Wall Project (2010–2013) at Winzavod CCA. In 2013, he initiated and oversaw the first street art prize in Russia, Street Contribution, and co-organised Pasha 183’s posthumous solo show Our Work is a Feat! at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art the following year. In 2012, ArtChronika Magazine listed him among the 50 most influential figures in Russian art. A year later, Artguide named him one of the country’s 20 most influential artists.
