Boris Mikhaïlov (b. 1938, Kharkiv, Ukraine; lives and works in Berlin, Germany)
Arles, Paris… and (1989)

After the fall of the Soviet regime, Boris and Vita Mikhailov’s first trip abroad was to Paris and Arles. The artist produced forty-nine black-and-white silver gelatin prints that he hand-painted with gouache and gold or silver ink. This series marks a turning point in his practice: having just emerged from Soviet deprivation and censorship, he casts a fascinated gaze upon scenes of everyday Western life. The color conveys his sensations as much as the observed reality, capturing a sense of abundance and joyful energy. A unique moment of formal experimentation in his body of work, this series also serves as a luminous interlude before his darker works, marked by anxiety over the upheavals brought about by the arrival of capitalism in the former Eastern Bloc.

Boris Mikhailov is a self-taught photographer. Trained as an engineer, he was fired from his job in the late 1960s when the KGB discovered photographs of his wife nude. This incident prompted him to devote himself entirely to underground photography, as a reaction to the propaganda images that obscured the reality of Soviet life. He exhibited his work in “dissident kitchens” and joined a collective that would become the core of the Kharkiv School. Now a leading figure on the international scene, he has received the Kaiserring Prize (2015), the Citibank/Deutsche Börse Prize (2001), and the Hasselblad Award (2000); represented Ukraine at the Venice Biennale (2007, 2017).

Selected institutional solo exhibitions include The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2025); Palazzo Esposizioni Roma, Rome (2023); Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2022); PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv (2019); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011). Selected group exhibitions include Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (2024); Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection (2022); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016); Manifesta 10 at the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2014); Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (2014); and Barbican, London (2018).

His works are held in major public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and Tel Aviv Museum of Art, among others.

After opening and running her first gallery in Barbizon for 20 years, Suzanne Tarasieve moved to Paris in 2003, with the goal of representing both emerging and established artists through an international exhibition program that explores the major historical transformations of the 20th and 21st centuries. The program is developed in collaboration with museums, art centers, and curators. The Suzanne Tarasieve Gallery exhibits and supports the creation of works ranging from German Neo-Expressionism to recent works by emerging artists.
Following Suzanne Tarasieve’s passing in December 2022, the gallery was taken over by her four associates, who continue the work of its now-legendary founder.