Anna Frants

Anna Frants (Russian: А́нна Алекса́ндровна Фра́нц; born 1 October 1965[1][2] in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is an American multimedia artist, curator, and art collector. She is the founder of nonprofit cultural foundation "St. Petersburg Arts Project" and "CYLAND" MediaArtLab, and is director of "Frants Gallery" (New York, United States).

Anna A. Frants
Born(1965-10-01)1 October 1965
Occupationmultimedia artist, curator, collector
Parent(s)
  • Aleksandr Solomonovich Pinsker, political commentator (Voice of America) (father)
AwardsAutodesk Planet Studio Award, New York
Websitehttp://www.annafrants.net

Biography

In 1989, Frants graduated from the St. Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design (formerly the Vera Mukhina Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry), where she had majored in Industrial Design. In 1992, she was admitted to the New-York Pratt Institute to the department of Art and Design where she majored in Computer Graphics and Animation.[3]

The mastering of computer graphics and animation marked the beginning of her enthusiasm for new media, new media art and technologies in art[4] and the concentration of her interests on the transition from traditional classical methods to cyberarts that was afforded unlimited possibilities by the rapidly developing internet.

In 1997, she married Leonid Frants. Their son Daniil became the youngest artist at CYLAND MediaArtLab: when he was only twelve, he created, as part of Cyfest, an international educational game program for children, the workshop "Humanizing Robots",[5] which he held in Russia, Germany, Japan, United States and Ukraine.

In addition to continuous exhibition activities as an artist and a curator[6] in New York, St. Petersburg, Europe and Japan, in 2010, Anna traveled to the Polar Region as a member of the international group of artists within the program "The Arctic Circle"[7] organized by the Canadian government. The program's purpose was to afford the artists an opportunity to visit hard-to-reach places of the Polar Region that are mostly known through scientific reports, which would subsequently allow them to create art projects based on their impressions of the region. In addition to the video footage filmed by Anna, that trip resulted in her interactive project Trembling Creatures,[8] exhibited at the group show of participants of those annual expeditions that opened in May 2014 at the "1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery"[9] in New York.

Selected exhibitions
  • Weather Forecast: Digital Cloudiness - Reggia di Caserta, Italy, 2018.[10]
  • Personal Spaces – Interactive Multimedia Works by Anna Frants, Carla Gannis, Alexandra Dementieva, Elena Gubanova and Ivan Govorkov. National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South, New York, 2018
  • HYBRIS, Monsters and Hybrids in Contemporary Art, University Ca’ Foscari, Venice, 2017].[11]
  • Patterns of the Mind, Convergence, London, 2016.[12]
  • Nargifsus, Transfer Gallery, New York, 2016.[13]
  • Made in Ancient Greece, Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, 2016.
  • The Other Home, Made in NY Media Center by IFP, New York, 2015.
  • Urbi et Orbi, as part of the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, RGGU, Moscow, 2015.
  • Personal Space #1, Youth Center at the State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, 2015.
  • Re: Collection, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2014.[14]
  • Magnetic North, The UBS Art Gallery, New York, 2014.
  • Finding Freedom in Russian Art, 1961-2014, Paul & Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, Lafayette, USA, 2014.[15]
  • This Leads to Fire, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, 2014.
  • Capital of Nowhere, 2013.[16]
  • VISIONARY DREAMS # 3261-64", 2013.[17]
  • The Time Keeper, State Hermitage, 2013.[18]
  • CYFEST Exhibition, 2012.[19]
  • Migrants, 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2013.[20]
  • The Time Keeper, 2012.[21]
  • Trembling Creatures, SIGGRAPH ASIA, 2011, Hong Kong.[22]

Selective artworks
  • "No. 0"  —  Multimedia installation in public space.[23]
  • Made in Ancient Greece], Series of works (5 objects from this series are in the collection of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York).[24]
  • In the Shade of Olive Tree]  —  in the collection of Kyosei-no-Sato Museum (Japan).[25]
  • Polar Bear Fodder.[26]
  • Trembling Creatures.[8]

The last two works were made as a result of the trip to the Polar circle as a member of the Canadian art expedition "The Arctic Circle" in 2009.[27] Artworks by Anna Frants are presented by Borey Gallery[28] (St. Petersburg, Russia), Dam Stuhltrager Gallery[29] (New York, United States, and Berlin, Germany) and Barbarian Gallery (Zurich, Switzerland). Her works are in the collections of the New York Museum of Arts and Design, State Russian Museum, Kyosei-no-Sato Museum (Japan), Kolodzei Art Foundation,[30] Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Contemporary Art and in numerous private collections all over the world.

Curatorial activities

The most notable of Frants' curatorial works were the retrospective exhibitions "Sterligov's Group", 2006, New York, and "Art around the Barracks", 2003, New York.

In the documentary of Andrey Zagdansky "Konstantin and Mouse", dedicated to Konstantin Kuzminsky, one of the episodes was filmed at the opening night of "Art around the Barracks" at Frants Gallery in Soho.

Among contemporary artists, who constantly collaborate with Anna Frants as a curator, are Vitaly Pushnitsky, Elena Gubanova and Ivan Govorkov, Alexander Kozhin, Alexander Terebenin, Marina Koldobskaya, Alexandra Dementieva, Peter Belyi, Petr Shvetsov.[6]

CYLAND MediaArtLab

In 2006, Anna Frants together with Колдобская, Марина Дмитриевна|Marina Koldobskaya founded the international media lab "СYLAND".

Since 2007, the MediaArtLab holds the annual festival of cyberart "Cyfest", the largest cyberart festival in Eastern Europe featuring artists from different countries who share an enthusiasm for new technologies.[31][6]

The use of computers allows the artist to break away from the deterministic nature of traditional art forms... Computer art is often similar to conceptual art from the point of view of intellectual judgment: the viewer needs to understand the artist's intentions. This understanding is even more important in interactive projects because the way we react depends on our ability to understand the artist's idea and expectations. The cyberart is challenging because it is based on the technologies and the means that are less intuitive for us and new in their form... Each innovative work gives us a new perspective for understanding the infinitely expanding universe of art and teaches us to understand its creative glossary.

— [32]

Nonprofit foundation "St. Petersburg Arts Project"

In 1999, Anna and Leonid Frants created the nonprofit foundation "St. Petersburg Arts Project"[33] that is still active. Its purpose was the representation in New York[4] of the artists from Leningrad/St. Petersburg who have been working there from the postwar 1950s until the present time.[31] The primary focus was on the so-called Leningrad underground[34] — the unique and underexplored cultural phenomenon of the 1970s and the artistic and social environment that brought if forth.

Gradually, the scope of activities of "Frants Gallery Space" expanded and started including not just the traditional genres, such as painting, sculpture and graphics, but also the art associated with the latest technologies:[33] cyberart, video art, computer animation, interactive installations as well as performance art.

Collection

The collection's creation was a natural extension of the development of "St. Petersburg Arts Project". Since 1998, Anna and Leonid Frants have been collecting works of visual arts of Leningrad underground.[31] Their current collection also includes sculptures, assemblages, photographs, videos, objects of actual art and archival materials.

In January 2013, the Department of Contemporary Art at the Hermitage Museum organized, as a part of the project "Actual Art of St. Petersburg, A Retrospective",[35] the exhibition "Simple Rules".[36] It showcased works from Russian and foreign private collections.

gollark: And has a significant safety focus.
gollark: Well, it's simpler and very lightweight, I guess.
gollark: https://ziglang.org/
gollark: Who are not using it for low-level things.
gollark: Bees WILL be deployed against C users.

References
  1. About Anna Frants Archived 2018-07-20 at the Wayback Machine // Facebook.
  2. Франц Анна Александровна Archived 2018-07-19 at the Wayback Machine // Famous Birthdays.ru.
  3. Лекция Анны Франц «Дизайн против Искусства против Дизайна» Archived 2018-04-07 at the Wayback Machine // National Centre for Contemporary Arts.
  4. The Time Keeper. Una mostra di gruppo itinerante Feed dei commenti Archived 2017-10-03 at the Wayback Machine // DIGICULT. Digital Art, Design and Culture. 2012.06.12.
  5. ""Humanizing Robots" by Daniil Frants - global workshop on robots for kids". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  6. People: Interview with curator Anna Frants at Venice Biennial 2015 Archived 2018-03-04 at the Wayback Machine // Chased. Magazin für Kunst, Ausstellungen, Vernissagen in Berlin. July 12. 2015.
  7. "The Arctic Circle artist and scientist residency program". Archived from the original on 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2014-02-04.
  8. "::: Anna Frants :::". www.annafrants.net. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  9. Paul Segers and Arjen de Leeuw in 'Magnetic North Artists and The Arctic Circle' Archived 2017-10-18 at the Wayback Machine // Dutch Culture USA. 16 May 2014, by Stefanie Hofman.
  10. "CYFEST Continues at the Eighteenth-Century Royal Palace in Caserta, Italy - CYLAND". cyland.org. Archived from the original on 20 July 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  11. "HYBRIS Exhibition in Venice, Monsters and Hybrids in Contemporary Art - CYLAND". cyland.org. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  12. "Convergence Digital Art Partnership". www.convergence-london.com. Archived from the original on 2016-06-21. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-09-16. Retrieved 2017-09-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "Re: Collection:". madmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-06-23. Retrieved 2017-09-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Capital of Nowhere - official site". capital.cyland.org. Archived from the original on 23 March 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  17. Пономаренко, Татьяна. "Borey Art - December 24 - 28, 2013. Anna Frants. Video & audio-installations". old.borey.ru. Archived from the original on 4 October 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  18. "The Time Keeper". www.hermitagemuseum.org. Archived from the original on 26 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  19. "Exhibition / CYBERFEST 2012". cylandfest.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  20. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2014-09-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. "timekeeper installations". iMAL. Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  22. "Trembling Creatures". www.siggraph.org. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  23. "::: Anna Frants :::". annafrants.net. Archived from the original on 18 September 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  24. "::: Anna Frants :::". www.annafrants.net. Archived from the original on 4 October 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  25. "::: Anna Frants :::". www.annafrants.net. Archived from the original on 18 September 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  26. "::: Anna Frants :::". www.annafrants.net. Archived from the original on 4 October 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  27. Works Archived 2018-04-07 at the Wayback Machine // Anna Frants Personal Site.
  28. "борей - арт центр". borey.ru. Archived from the original on 8 March 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  29. "THE WYE". www.damstuhltrager.com. Archived from the original on 12 August 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  30. "Kolodzei Art Foundation - Art from Russia and former Soviet Union". www.kolodzeiart.org. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  31. Anna Frants Archived 2018-03-04 at the Wayback Machine // Venice Conference 2017.
  32. Citation from a booklet of Anna Frants exhibition «Visual Dreams №2391-95. VideoCyberArt» — Borey Gallery (St. Peterburg), December 2011.
  33. "St. Petersburg Arts Project non-for-profit foundation New York". www.artpropaganda.com. Archived from the original on 11 April 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  34. Л. Гуревич. Художники ленинградского андеграунда. Биографический словарь. Искусство. СПб, 2007.
  35. "Простые правила В рамках образовательной программы "РЕТРОСПЕКТИВА. Страницы истории петербургского искусства"". Hermitage Museum. Archived from the original on July 26, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  36. "Simple Rules" exhibition in Hermitage Archived 2017-02-14 at the Wayback Machine // Obtaz Atrs.

Sources
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