Cover | Valentin Popov

Strong Sun (2006-2008, oil on canvas). Valentin Popov’s work is found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the New York Public Library, as well as other museums and private collections around the world. Popov, who was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine, has shown his work at the National Museum of Ukranian Art in Kiev, the first time a Western-based Ukranian artist has shown at that museum while still living. “Valentin Popov’s art makes us wonder at the dark currents running through the phantom museum of human experience,” says Barnaby Conrad III, an art historian, collector and curator. “At times his paintings seem filled with laughter, pain, mysticism and fevered memory—a phrase that might well describe the Soviet Union that he grew up in during the late 20th century.” Then and Now, a major monograph by the artist with essays by Conrad and Robert Flynn Johnson has just been published. Modernism hosts a reception and book signing on Wednesday, July 9, 5:30-8 p.m. at the Modernism gallery, 685 Market Street, San Francisco. For more information: www.modernisminc.com or (415) 541-0461.