Tape artist Max Zorn has officially signed off on a solo exhibit with ERARTA – the largest private museum of contemporary art in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg. This three-month show features 25 large Zorn artworks over thee feet in size up to 10-feet triptychs, and a digital arm of making-of videos connected to particular works.

“It will be a combination of unique artworks I’ve already created for collectors, and new pieces I have to create on a large, detailed scale. That will take quite some time, in fact I’m already starting,” says Zorn, who has until April 2022 before the grand opening. Plenty of time to prepare, but still a tight schedule for an artist constantly sold out and booked with commissions.

The contract comes after Zorn’s fourth consecutive sell-out exhibition booth during Art Basel Miami week represented by the Stick Together Gallery. ERARTA Executive Manager Vadim Varvarin approached Stick Together’s booth at SCOPE Miami 2018 with an interest in a possible future between Max Zorn tape art and a curated museum show at ERARTA (a not to “era of art”). This September the concept became a signed agreement.

“It’s every artist’s dream to create a solo show for an art museum, and Max has worked harder than anyone I know to get there,” says Audrey Sykes, owner of Stick Together Gallery. The title of the exhibition: “City Lights”. Sykes says it’s a nod to Zorn’s path from street artist to success story.

“If it weren’t for Europe’s city lights, Max Zorn might have never existed as we know him in art.”

Max Zorn is an artist who uses only brown and colored packing tape as his medium. He applies layers on acrylic glass and shapes them with a scalpel as light from behind illuminates a nostalgic subject and setting.

“Erarta is the brainchild of Marina Varvarina, a low-profile businesswoman with a doctorate in mathematics,” wrote The Huffington Post. According to Wikipedia, in August 2019, the Erarta collection holds 2,800 works by over 300 artists, making it the biggest contemporary art museum in Russia. The collection includes paintings, sculpture, installations, and other medium artworks.

– by Jamie Bouwer