Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are best known for their pioneering 'total installations', which completely immerse the viewer in a dramatic, constructed environment. These installations, together with paintings and works on paper, are informed by their shared Soviet background but also engage with universal themes such as personal or collective memory, fantasy and illusion. Often populated by fictional characters, their works draw upon the optimistic idealisation of Socialist Realist visual culture, which is sharply contrasted with the dreary reality of daily life in cramped communal apartments. While their visions of utopia are undercut with dark undercurrents of power and oppression, there is an inherent humanity and hope to these works that suggests the possibility of a brighter future.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov were both born in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, in the former USSR and later settled in the United States. Ilya studied at the V.I. Surikov Art Institute in Moscow and began his career as a children's book illustrator during the 1950s, also becoming part of a group of Conceptual artists working outside the official Soviet art system. He was offered a fellowship at the Graz Kunstverein, Austria in 1987, afterwards settling in New York, where he reconnected with Emilia Lekach. She had trained as a classical pianist and studied Spanish literature before emigrating to Israel in 1973 and then, in 1975, to New York, where she worked as a curator and art dealer. They worked collaboratively from their home in Long Island from 1989 up to Ilya's passing in 2023.
The Kabakovs' early work was shown at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1990); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1991); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1992); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (1995); and Centre Pompidou, Paris (1996), among others. They represented Russia at the Venice Biennale in 1993 with their installation The Red Pavilion and were included in the 1997 Whitney Biennial. Other important installations include: We Are Leaving Here Forever, Carnegie International 1991, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (1991); The Big Archive, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1993); We Are Living Here, Centre Pompidou, Paris (1995); and The Strange City, Monumenta 2014, Grand Palais, Paris (2014). A restrospective of their work was the inaugural exhibition at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, when it opened in 2008. More recently, a major retrospective of their work, Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future, opened at Tate Modern, London in 2017, travelling to the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow and The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg in 2018. Solo exhibitions of their work have been held at international institutions, including Dallas Contemporary (2021); Kunsthalle Rostock, Germany (2018); Kistefos Museum Sculpture Park, Oslo (2017); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2017); Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2015); and Sprengel Museum, Hanover (2014). They have received numerous honours and awards, including both the Chevalier and the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres from France (1995 and 2014) and the Oskar Kokoschka Prize from Austria (2002). They have also received honourary degrees from the Moscow Art Academy, the Sorbonne, Paris and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
The Ship of Tolerance is a travelling collaborative art project intended to promote understanding and unity, with sails stitched together from silk paintings by local schoolchildren from diverse backgrounds. Since its first inception in Siwa, Egypt in 2005, it has been shown in venues across the globe, including the Chicago River (2019); the River Thames near Tate Modern, London (2019), Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome (2017); Kunsthaus Zug, Switzerland (2016); and Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2013), as well as at the Havana Biennial (2012); Sharjah Biennial (2011); and Venice Biennale (2007). The Ship of Tolerance was awarded the prestigious Cartier Prize for the Best Art Project of the Year in 2010.
2024
Between Heaven and Earth, A tribute to Ilya Kabakov, Querini Stampalia Foundation, Venice, Italy
2023
Tomorrow We Fly, Tel Aviv Museum, Israel
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: ,The Eminent Direction of Thoughts, MOMus Experimental Center for the Arts, Thessaloniki, Greece
The Ship of Tolerance, Thessaloniki, Greece
2021
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Retrospective, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX, USA
The Monument to Tolerance, permanent installation, Echigo-Tsumari Art Field, Tokamachi, Japan
The Ship of Tolerance, Palermo, Italy
16 Ropes, Matsudai History Museum, Tokamachi, Japan
2020
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: I Will Return on April 12..., Galerie Brigitte Schenk, Cologne, Germany
The Ship of Tolerance, Bruckenkopf-Park, Jülich, Germany
2019
In the Making: Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. From Drawing to Installation, Tchoban Foundation, Museum for Architectural Drawing, Berlin, Germany
The Ship of Tolerance, EXPO CHICAGO, Chicago, IL, USA
The Ship Of Tolerance, Thames Festival Trust, London, UK
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: How to Meet an Angel, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
The Ship of Tolerance, Samara Art Museum, Samara, Russia
The Ship of Tolerance, Krezau, Düren, Germany
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Unfinished Paintings of Charles Rosenthal, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
2018
The Ship of Tolerance, Rostock, Germany
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. Two Times, Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock, Germany
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov – Drawings, Keteleer Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
2017
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Not Everybody Will be Taken Into The Future, Tate Modern, London, UK; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Musique de Chambre, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: New Paintings, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Quotations, Sprovieri, London, UK
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Utopian Projects, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Concert for a Fly (Chamber Music), Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK
The Ship of Tolerance, Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Rome, Italy
The Ball, Kistefos Museum Sculpture Park, Oslo, Norway
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Paintings 2012–2015, Kewenig Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2016
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
The Arch of Life, LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, NY, USA
The Ship of Tolerance and Exhibition of Paintings, Kunsthaus Zug, Zug, Switzerland
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
2015
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: New Paintings, Pace Gallery, New York, NY, USA
The Arch of Life, permanent installation, Echigo-Tsumari Art Field, Tokamachi, Japan
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Dream City, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
2014
Monumento a la Revolución, Fábrica de Artes y Oficios Oriente, Mexico City, Mexico
Angelology, Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso and Galeria Nina Menocal, Mexico City, Mexico
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Paintings about the Sun, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
I'm Beginning to Forget. Ilya Kabakov and Swiss Collections, Kunsthaus Zug, Zug, Switzerland
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Printed Utopias? Editionen 1997–2014, Galerie Mike Karstens, Münster, Germany
The Strange City, Monumenta 2014, Réunion des Musées Nationaux – Grand Palais, Paris, France
2013
Dreaming & Flying. Ilya Kabakov for Children, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: A Collective Memory, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Pace Gallery, New York, NY, USA
The Ship Of Tolerance, DUMBO Arts Festival, New York, NY, USA
The Flying / Le Tre Finestre, permanent installation, Toledo Stazione della Metropolitana dell'Arte, Napoli Metro, Naples, Italy
The Ship of Tolerance, Gorky Park, Moscow, Russia
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. Vertical Paintings and Other Works, Ivorypress Space, Madrid, Spain
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Two Mountains, Sprovieri, London, UK
The Happiest Man, Ambika P3, London, UK
2012
The Pirate's Ship, ARTLANTIC: wonder 2012, Atlantic City, NJ, USA
Monument to a Lost Civilization, with Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Red October, Moscow, Russia
Ilya e Emilia Kabakov: The Happiest Man, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Galerieartist, Istanbul, Turkey
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Appearance of Collage, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
The Ship of Tolerance, 11th Biennial of Havana, Havana, Cuba
Ilya Kabakov: A Return to Painting, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Lia Rumma, Milan, Italy
2011
The Ship of Tolerance, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, FL, USA
Angelologia, Rondo Sztuki, Katowice, Poland
The Ship of Tolerance, Sharjah Bienniale, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
The Man Who Never Threw Anything Away, Bergen Kunstmuseum, Bergen, Norway
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Center of Cosmic Energy and Center of Creativity, Galerie Brigitte Schenk, Cologne, Germany
2010
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Angelology, The Model, Sligo, Ireland
The Printer's Mistake. Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Memorial for a Prisoner, permanent installation, Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, Marl, Germany
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Canon, Kewenig Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Flying Painting, Sprovieri, London, UK
Ilya Kabakov – ORBIS PICTUS. Der Kinderbuchillustrator als eine soziale Figur, Kunsthaus Zug, Zug, Switzerland
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Flying Paintings, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Die Tragödie des Teufels, set design, Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Germany
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Blue Carpet, MACRO – Museo di Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome, Italy
2009
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Under the Snow, Sprovieri, London, UK
Monument to the City of Bordeaux / La maison aux personnages, permanent installation, Place Amélie Raba Léon, Bordeaux, France
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Tennis Game, Galleria Continua, Le Moulin, France
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. Under the Snow, Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani de Palma, Palma, Spain
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Galleria Continunua, San Gimignano, Italy
The Labyrinth. My Mother's Album, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal
Entre Libre: Ilya Kabakov, 52 entretiens dans la cuisine communautaire, Galerie du Dourven, Trédrez-Locquémeau; CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
2008
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: I Sleep in the Orchard, Sprovieri, London, UK
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: What We Shall See After Death, Atlas Sztuki Gallery, Łódź, Poland
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Retrospective, State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, and Contemporary Art Center Winzavod, Moscow, Russia
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Canon, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
2007
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Under The Snow, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany; Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland; CAC Málaga | Centro de arte contemporáneo de Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. ORBIS PICTUS, Museum of Modern Art, Hayama; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima; Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo; Ashikaga Museum of Art, Ashikaga, Japan
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, TR3 Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Center of Cosmic Energy, Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA, USA
The Ship of Tolerance, 52nd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2006
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Installation and Theatre, Versicherungskammer Bayern, Munich, Germany
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Under the Snow, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
The Ship of Siwa: Drawings, L'Opéra national de Paris, Paris, France
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Galerie Brigitte Schenk, Cologne, Germany
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Kewenig Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Ilya Kabakov: Paintings, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Morning, Evening, Night, installation, Reykjavík Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: The Thaw, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
The Album of My Mother, permanent installation, Schaulager, Münchenstein, Switzerland
10 Albums by Ilya Kabakov, Atlas Sztuki Gallery, Łódź, Poland
2005
The Ship of Siwa: Installation and Performance, Siwa, Egypt
Ilya and Emilia Kabokov: The White Cube, Sprovieri, London, UK
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: House of Dreams, Serpentine Galleries, London, UK
Ilya Kabakov, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Where is Our Place?, les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse, Toulouse, France
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Paintings for the Label (Label for Chateau Mouton Rothschild), State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia
2004
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. We Are Free!, Stella Art Foundation, Moscow, Russia
Drinking Fountain, permanent installation, Bahnhofplatz Zug, Zug, Switzerland
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Warszawa-Moskwa / Mockva-Bapwava 1900–2000, Zaçhęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, Warsaw, Poland; State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
The Empty Museum by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Tallinn Kunstihoone, Tallinn, Estonia
The Utopia City and Other Projects by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany; Kunsthaus Zug, Zug, Switzerland; Albion Gallery, London, UK
Prints by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Mike Karstens Editions, Münster, Germany
The Teacher and the Student, Charles Rosenthal and Ilya Kabakov, Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, USA
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. An Incident in the Museum and other Installations (org. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York), State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Der glänzende Zirkus und seine Zuschauer / The Shining Circus and Its Spectators, permanent installation, Versicherungskammer Bayern, Munich, Germany
Twenty Ways to Get an Apple Listening to the Music of Mozart and other works by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY, USA
The Empty Museum by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, Queens, NY, USA
2003
10 Albums by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Ilya Kabakov: Photo and video, the documentation of a life and creativity, House of Photography, Moscow, Russia
Ilya Kabakov, Galerie im Traklhaus, Salzburg, Austria
Begegne Deinem Engel / How to Meet an Angel, permanent installation, Gut Böckel, Rödinghausen, Germany
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Where Is Our Place?, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, 50th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Center of Cosmic Energy, Clara Maria Sels Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
Rosenthal: Pianista y Musa / Pianist and Muse, permanent installation, Jardín de la Vega, Alcobendas, Spain
2002
Ilya Kabakov: Children's Books and Related Drawings, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX, USA
Ilya Kabakov, Sprovieri, London, UK
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Venice Biennale Paintings, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Not Everyone Will Be Taken into the Future. Materialien zur Installation, Galerie im Traklhaus, Salzburg, Austria
Ausgestellt / Vorgestellt VI. Ilya Kabakov für Christian Tomaszewski, Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, Marl, Germany
Ilya Kabakov: Universalsystem zur Darstellung von allem, Kunsthalle Göppingen, Göppingen, Germany
2001
Ilya Kabakov: 10 Characters – Albums and Monument to a Lost Glove, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, USA
The Palace of Projects, permanent installation, Kokerei, UNESCO-Welterbe Zollverein, Essen, Germany
Ilya Kabakov, Galerie Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf, Germany
The Tennis Game II (with Boris Groys), Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
20th August, 1968, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria
20 Ways to Get an Apple Listening to the Music of Mozart, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, USA
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: The Empty Bottle, Art, Design, and Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
2000
Ilya Kabakov stellt vor: Leben und Werk von Charles Rosenthal 1898–1933 / Ilya Kabakov Presents: The Life and Creativity of Charles Rosenthal 1898–1933, Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Il bambino malato, Lia Rumma, Naples, Italy
Ilya Kabakov: 1969–1998, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
Wordless, permanent installation, Skulpturenprojekt Kunstwegen – der Vechte Folgen, Laar, Germany and Gramsbergen, Netherlands
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: The Palace of Projects (org. Public Art Fund), 69th Regiment Armory, New York, NY, USA
Ilya Kabakov. 50 Installationen, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden; Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany
The Fountain, permanent installation, Stadhuis van Middelburg, Middelburg, Netherlands
1999
Ilya Kabakov: Das angeflogene Archiv / The Arriving Archive, Galerie der Stadt Backnang – Turmschulhaus, Backnang, Germany
Ilya Kabakov: Der Rote Waggon / The Red Wagon, Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany
Ilya Kabakov: Life and Creativity of Charles Rosenthal, Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Mito, Japan
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: The Old Reading Room, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Boat of My Life: Ilya Kabakov, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO; Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA, USA
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Monumento alla civiltà perduta / Monument to a Lost Civilization, Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo, Italy
They Are Looking Down, permanent installation, Shirakawa Park, Nagoya, Japan
1998
Ilya Kabakov: Zeichnungen / Tekeningen / Drawings, Stadsgalerij Heerlen, Heerlen, Netherlands; Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
Ilya Kabakov in Moscow, Manezh and Soros Center, Moscow, Russia
My Grandfather's Shed, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
The Last Step, permanent installation, Hochschule Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany
Ilya Kabakov: My Grandfather's Shed, Mönchehaus Museum Goslar, Goslar, Germany
The Boat of My Life, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
Ilya Kabakov: Treatment with Memories, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany
Ilya Kabakov: 16 Installaties / 16 Installations, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Collector, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: The Palace of Projects, The Roundhouse, London; Upper Campfield Market, Manchester, UK; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
1997
Zeichnungen und Alben / Drawings and Albums, Galerie Weisses Schloss (Galerie Raymond Bollag), Zürich, Switzerland
The Hospital: Five Confessions, Capp Street Project, San Francisco, CA, USA
Ilya Kabakov: The Reading Room, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY, USA
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: 20 Ways to Get an Apple Listening to the Music of Mozart, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
The Artist's Library, Satani Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Monument to a Lost Glove (org. Public Art Fund), installation, 23rd Street and Broadway, New York, NY, USA
The Life of Flies, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1996
Ilya Kavakov: Stimmen hinter der Tür / Voices Behind the Door, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Herfurthschen Villa, Leipzig, Germany
Sur le toit / Op het Dak / On the Roof, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Books: A Retrospective of Drawings, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Ilya Kabakov: Der Lesesaal: Bilder, Leporellos und Zeichnungen / The Reading Room: Paintings, Leporellos and Drawings, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Ilya Kabakov Storyteller: Installationer og ikke-realiserede projekter / Installations and Unrealised Projects, Køge Bugt Kulturhus, Portalen i Greve, Greve; Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Aalborg, Denmark
1995
No Water, permanent installation, MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria
Ilya Kabakov: Incident at the Museum, or Water Music (music by Vladimir Tarasov), Centro de Arte Moderna da Fundação Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
Ilya Kabakov: Ein Meer von Stimmen: Eine Neuerwerbung der Emanuel Hoffmann-Stiftung und Werke aus der Zeit von 1965 bis 1993 in Schweizer Sammlungen, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland
The School Library, permanent installation, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Boot meines Lebens und Nicht ausgeführte Projekte / The Boat of My Life and Unrealised Projects, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden, Germany
Le Collectionneur / The Collector, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Ilya Kabakov: C’est ici que nous vivons / We Are Living Here, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
The Man Who Never Threw Anything Away, permanent installation, Museet for samtidskunst – Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway
1994
The Red Corner, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden
Óframkvaemd verkefni / Unrealised Projects, Onnur Hæd Sýningarsalur, Reykjavik, Iceland
Ilya Kabakov: In der Wohnung von Viktor Nikolajewich / In the Apartment of Victor Nicolaevich, Jablonka Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Le bateau de ma vie: L'album de ma mere: La rivière souterraine dorée / The Boat of My Life: My Mother's Album: The Golden Underground River, Le Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France
Zwischenfall im Museum oder Wassermusik / Incident at the Museum or Water Music (music by Vladimir Tarasov), Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany
Die Verzweiflung des Künstlers oder die Verschwörung der Untalentierten / Artist's Despair or Conspiracy of the Untalented, Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin, Germany
Leikkaussali – Äiti ja poika / Operasjoussal – Mor og Sønn / Operation Room – Mother and Son, Ateneum, Helsinki, Finland; Museet for samtidskunst – Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway
1993
School No. 6, permanent installation, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX, USA
Ilya Kabakov: Das Boot meines Lebens / The Boat of My Life, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria
Ilya Kabakov: Incident at the Museum or Water Music (music by Vladimir Tarasov), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, USA
Concert for a Fly (music by Vladimir Tarasov), permanent installation, Château d'Oiron, Oiron, France
Das leere Museum / The Empty Museum, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt, Germany
Ilya Kabakov: Het Grote Archief / The Grand Archive, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1992
Ilya Kabakov: NOMA oder Der Kreis der Moskauer Konzeptualisten / NOMA or The Moscow Conceptual Circle, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
Ilya Kabakov, Galleria Sprovieri, Rome, Italy
Ter Nagedachternis aan Aangename Herinneringen / In Memory of Pleasant Recollections, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
Unaufgehängtes Bild / Unhung Painting, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Incident at the Museum or Water Music (music by Vladimir Tarasov), Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
Dans la Cuisine Communautaire: Noveaux documents et matériaux / In the Communal Kitchen: New Documents and Materials, Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris, France
He Lost His Mind, Undressed, Ran Away Naked, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
Ilya Kabakov: Das Leben der Fliegen / The Life of Flies, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
1991
Ilya Kabakov: 52 Entretiens dans la Cuisine Communautaire / 52 Dialogues on the Communal Kitchen Ateliers (with Yuri Kuper), Ateliers municipaux d'artistes, Marseille; La Criée, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Rennes, France
Ilya Kabakov, Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, Japan
Die Zielscheiben / The Targets, Galerie Peter Pakesch, Vienna, Austria
Meine Heimat: Die Fliegen / My Motherland: The Flies, Galerie Wewerka & Weiss, Berlin, Germany
1990
Das Schiff / The Ship, Neue Galerie, Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, Germany
Ilya Kabakov: 7 Ausstellungen eines Bildes / 7 Exhibitions of a Painting, Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel, Germany
Directions: Ilya Kabakov. Ten Characters, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA
The Rope of Life and Other Installations, Fred Hoffman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA
He Lost his Mind, Undressed, Ran Away Naked, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
1989
Who Are These Little White Men?, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Ilya Kabakov: Ausstellung eines Buches / Exhibition of a Book, DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Galerie, Berlin, West Germany
Witte schilderijen en witte mensjes / White Paintings and Little White Men, Karel Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Two Albums, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, West Germany
Das Schiff, Die Kommunalwohnung: zwei Installationen von Ilya Kabakov / The Ship, The Communal Apartment: Two Installations by Ilya Kabakov, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Ilya Kabakov: The Untalented Artist and Other Characters, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK
Ilya Kabakov: 10 Albums, 10 Characters, Riverside Studios, London, UK
Que sont ces petits hommes? / Who Art These Little Men?, Galerie de France, Paris, France
1988
Ilya Kabakov: Ten Albums, Portikus, Frankfurt, West Germany
Ilya Kabakov: Ten Characters, Ronald Feldman Fine Art, New York, NY, USA
Ilya Kabakov: Vor dem Abendessen / Before Supper, Opernhaus Graz, Graz, Austria
1986
Rauminstallationen und Bildwerke aus den 80er Jahren / Installations and Paintings from the Eighties, Neue Galerie, Schlössli Götzental, Dierikon, Switzerland
1985
Ilya Kabakov: Am Rande / Along the Edge, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Centre de la Vieille Charité, Marseille, France; Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, West Germany; Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris, France
Ilya Kabakov, Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris, France
2024
Alias, M Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
2023
Glitch, BUILDING Gallery, Milan, Italy
2022
Constellations: Global Reflections, G20, Bali, Indonesia
Museum in Motion, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Il Festival del Paesaggio: Aria di Capri, Villa San Michele, Anacapri, Italy
Inferno | The Flying Komarov, Karl Böhm Hall, Festspielhaus, Salzburg, Austria
2021
The Cool and the Cold. Painting in the USA and the USSR 1960–1990, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, Tokamachi, Japan
The Ironic Curtain: Art from the Soviet Underground, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC, USA
Diversity United. Contemporary European Art. Moscow. Berlin. Paris., Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, Germany; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Artists' Breath, Ichihara Art x Mix 2020+, Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Ichihara, Japan
Noor Riyadh Festival 2021, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Please Take a Seat!, C + N Canepaneri, Milan, Italy
Influx from Easter Europe, Kunsthaus Zug, Zug, Switzerland
A Shadow of the Soul but Slightly Sharper, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia
2020
30 Years in Paris, Thaddeaus Ropac, Paris Pantin, France
Flowers for Doctors, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia
Analysis Interminable. Psychoanalytical Schools Of Thought After Freud, Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria
Where is Our Place?, IVAM – Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencià, Spain
The Artist-Collector's Dream (A Nice Thing), Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, MASI Lugano – Museo d'arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland
The Great Pause, Verbier 3-D Foundation, Verbier, Switzerland
Fantastic Utopias, Galleria Continua, Ala Scaligera, Rocca di Angera, Angera, Italy
2019
Art 19 – Box One, in support of Amnesty International, me Collectors Room Berlin / Stiftung Olbricht, Berlin, Germany
Dialogues – Ilya Kabakov and Viktor Pivovarov: Stories About Ourselves, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
…et labora, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Arles, France
The non-conformists. The Story of a Russian Collection, l'Hôtel des collections, MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain, Montpellier, France
The Missing Planet, Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
BEWEGUNG ALS TRAUM, Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin, Germany
RUSSIA. TIMELESS, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic
Bye, Bye and Hello – 40 Years Deweer Gallery, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
14th Curitiba International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil
From Figure To Space. Sculptures, Objects, Installations from the Collection, Kunsthaus Zug, Zug, Switzerland
An Opera For Animals, Para Site, Hong Kong; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Vergessen – Warum wir nicht alles erinnern, Historisches Museum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
The Rope of Life, Galleria Continua, Sam Gimignano, Italy
1989. EL FIN DEL SIGLO XX, IVAM – Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencià, Spain
2018
Victory over the Sun: Russian Avant-Garde and Beyond, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
1914/1918 – Not Then, Not Now, Not Ever, Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin; VARUSSCHLACHT im Osnabrücker Land – Museum und Park Kalkriese, Bramsche, Germany; United Nations Headquarters, New York, NY, USA; European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
At the beginning was the word. Concepts – Images – Script, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
Soundlines of Contemporary Art, International Contemporary Art Exhibition: Armenia 2018, Yerevan, Armenia
Schilling, Mark, Dollar, Euro und … Geld in der Kunst, Kunst im Traklhaus, Salzburg, Austria
L'envol, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Artists for Artangel: A Fund for the Future, Cork Street Galleries, London, UK
The Myriad Forms of Visual Art: 196 Works with 19 Themes, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Schreiben ist Zeigen. Textbilder und -objekte aus der Edition Block, Haus für Poesie, Berlin, Germany
Les Équivalents, Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, Boissy-le-Châtel, France
Avatars. The artist and his double, les Abattoirs, Musée – FRAC Occitanie Toulouse, Toulouse, France
Freedom is Recognized Necessity, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Tour. Ludwig Museum — The Collection Of Russian Museum At MAMM, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia
Unterwegs. Martin Noël, Mike Karstens, Münster, Germany
Inside the collection – Approaching thirty years of the Centro Pecci (1988–2018), Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
2017
Ottepel Prishla v Lipetzk / The Thaw Came to Lipetsk, Buksir Gallery, Lipetsk, Russia
The Weight of History. Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Russland, 100 Jahre nach der Oktoberrevolution, Galerie für Gegenwartskunst, E-Werk Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
9th Vladivostok Biennale of Visual Arts, Vladivostok, Russia
Collector's Room # 16: Landscapes of the Mind, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
Art Without Death: Russischer Kosmismus, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
STANDART 2017: Triennial of Contemporary Art in Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
Red Horizon: Contemporary Art and Photography in the USSR and Russia, 1960–2010, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, USA
Luther and the Avantgarde, Wittenberg Altes Gefängnis, Wittenberg, Germany
Collection. Remonter le temps, FRAC Bretagne – Fonds régional d'art contemporain, Rennes, France
The Carpet Kartell, tANJA gRUNERT salon, Hudson, NY, USA
To Challenge the Earth, the Moon, the Sun & the Stars, 7th Socle du Monde Biennale, HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark
The Revolution is Dead. Long Live The Revolution!, Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
From the Cavern to the Moon: A Journey through the Collection of the Centro Pecci, Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
AQUA – Contemporary Artists and Water Issues, Ile Rousseau and Château de Penthes, Geneva, Switzerland; SESC Belenzinho, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Interior and the Carpet, Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, CA, USA
moving is in every direction. Environments – Installationen – Narrative Räume, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany
2016
Art & Language and Ilya Kabakov: The non-objective world, Sprovieri, London, UK
Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY, USA
The Kabakovs and the Avant-Gardes, LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, Lugano, Switzerland
KENPOKU ART 2016, Northern Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
'Thinking Picture': Moscow Conceptual Art in the Dodge Collection, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ, USA
Kollektsia! Contemporary Art in the USSR and Russia 1950–2000, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Paris sans Fin. Cézanne bis Giacometti | Ilya und Emilia Kabakov, Kunsthaus Zug, Zug, Switzerland
Facing the Future. Art in Europe 1945–1968, BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium; ZKM – Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe, Germany; Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
Summer Exhibition 2016, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
Russian Space, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia
Typography as an Act of Art, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
Arte en Escena: Obras de la colección MAXXI Museo de Arte del Siglo XXI, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dreamworlds and Catastrophes: Intersections of Art and Science, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ, USA
Carambolages, Réunion des Musées Nationaux – Grand Palais, Paris, France
Memory and Continuity: A Selection from the Huma Kabakcı Collection, PERA Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
Nonconformism as a Starting Point: Works of 1960s–2000s from the Collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Victoria Gallery, Samara, Russia
Die Druckwerkstatt Mike Karstens, Kunstverein Villa Wessel, Iserlohn, Germany
White Cube … Literally, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2015
Tightrope Walk: Painted Images After Abstraction, White Cube Bermondsey, London, UK
Black Sun, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Switzerland
Follia Continua! 25 años de Galleria Continua, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba
Space Age, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Pantin, France
Der rote Faden. Ordnungen des Erzählens, Kolumba Kunstmuseum des Erzbistums Köln, Cologne, Germany
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, Tokamachi, Japan
Enlight my Space. Kunst nach 1990, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Europe. The Future of History, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Glasstress 2015: Gotika, Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti, 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Proportio, Palazzo Fortuny, 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
No Joke, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin, Germany
The Ties of Friendship: An Exhibition, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany
Contemporaries of the Future. Jewish Artists in The Russian Avant-Garde, 1910s–1980s, Jewish Museum & Tolerance Center, Moscow, Russia
Grammar of Freedom / Five Lessons: Works from the Arteast 2000+ Collection, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
Outside the Lines: Modernist Drawings, National Arts Club, New York, NY, USA
2014
Eastwards. Freedom, Borders, Projections, Ludwig Forum Aachen, Aachen, Germany
Eurasia. A View on Painting, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Pantin, France
Post Pop: East Meets West, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
De Zee – Salut d'honneur Jan Hoet, Mu.ZEE Kunstmuseum aan zee, Ostend, Belgium
The Century of the Bed: Points of View, curated by_vienna, Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna, Austria
Precious Framing. Painting and its Frame. Dialogues, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Finding Freedom in Russian Art, 1961–2014. Selections from the Kolodzei Art Foundation and the Collection of Dr. Wayne F. Yakes, Hilliard Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA
An Inner Dialogue – The Contemporary Self-Portrait, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
The Present and Presence | Repetition 6: Install Yourself!, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sigmund Freud and the Play on the Burden of Representation (installation by Joseph Kosuth), Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria
2013
Collectiepresentatie XXXII – Persoonlijkheidstest + The Book Lovers, M HKA – Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium
Beyond Liaisons, World Jewellery Museum, Seoul, South Korea
do it 20 13, Manchester International Festival, Manchester, UK
Collectiepresentatie XXXIII – Het karakter van een collective, M HKA – Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium
Lost in Translation, Ca' Foscari Esposizioni, 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Glasstress 2013: White Light / White Heat, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti, 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Blickachsen 9, Frankfurt, Germany
2012
Utopia and Reality. El Lissitzky, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia; Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria
Breaking The Ice: Moscow Art 1960s–1980s, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Verführung Freight – Kunst in Europa Seit 1945 / The Desire for Freedom – Art in Europe since 1945, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany; Palazzo Reale Milano, Milan, Italy; Kumu kunstimuuseum, Tallinn, Estonia; MOCAK – Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, Kraków, Poland
Moscow Conceptualism. Beginning, National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, Russia
Medals of Dishonour, Menshikov Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
Agency of Unrealized Projects, DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Behind the Iron Curtain. Official and Independent Art in the Soviet Union and Poland 1945–1989, All-Russia Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, Moscow, Russia
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times. Rebirth and Apocalypse in Contemporary Art, 1st Kiev Biennale of Contemporary Art Arsenale 2012, Kiev, Ukraine
The Drawing Room, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
2011
MMK 1991–2011: 20 Jahre Gegenwart, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
Jewelry by Contemporary Artists, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY, USA
12th Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Prague, Czech Republic
TRA. Edge of Becoming, Palazzo Fortuny, 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Museum of Parallel Narratives. In the framework of L'Internationale, MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Eroi, GAM-Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy
Gates and Doors, State Russian Museum, The Marble Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
Art of the Loom: 32 Tapestries Woven on the Looms of Mark Deweer's Factory, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
Architectures / Dessins / Utopies. Works from the Centre National Des Arts Plastiques, Paris, MNAC – Muzeul Național de Artă Contemporană, Bucharest, Romania
2010
Idee und Objekt, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Take Me to Your Leader! The Great Escape Into Space, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo, Norway
Vertical Opera, performance, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA
Counterpoint, Contemporary Russian Art – From the Icon to the Avant-Garde by way of the Museum, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
Just Love Me: Regard sur une collection privée, MUDAM Musée d'art moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Rugged Beauties, Verein zur Förderung von Kunst und Kultur am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, Germany
29th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
What is Someone Like You Doing in a Place Like This?, Consejería de Educación, Universidades, Cultura y Deportes, Gobierno de Canarias, Canary Islands, Spain
Intensif-Station, K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
The Surreal House: Architecture of Desire, Barbican Centre, London, UK
Spazio. From MAXXI's collections of art and architecture, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy
Ruhr-Atoll, European Capital of Culture 2010, Baldeneysee Lake, Essen, Germany
Changing the World, Arndt Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Until Now: Collecting the New (1960–2010), Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Glasnost: Soviet non-conformist art from the 1980s, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
Star City, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK
2009
Poétique du chantier, Musée-Château d'Annecy, Annecy, France
1989. Spione. Mauer. Kinderheim – An Der Brücke Zwischen den Welten, Villa Schöningen, Potsdam, Germany
1989. End of History or Beginning of the Future?, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Medals of Dishonour, British Museum, London, UK
heart in heart, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
Between Metaphor and Object: Art of the '90s from the IMMA Collection, IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Holbein to Tillmans. Prominent Guests from the Kunstmuseum Basel, Schaulager, Münchenstein, Switzerland
Mythologies, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
2008
ARTEAST 2000+, Works from Moderna Galerija Ljubljana Collections, UGM Umetnostna galerija Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
Art of Our Time: To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Praemium Imperiale in Honor of Prince Takamatsu, Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Utopia, MACRO – Museo di Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome, Italy
Wonder, 2nd Singapore Biennale, Singapore
Unmoved, Galleria Continua, Beijing, China
Total Enlightenment. Moscow Conceptual Art 1960–1990, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany; Fundación Juan March, Madrid, Spain
Moving Towards a Balanced Earth: Kick the carbon habit, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand
Of this Tale, I cannot guarantee a single word, Royal College of Art, London, UK
Public Housing / Public Sphere, Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
2007
Collectiepresentatie XXI, M HKA – Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium
Sots Art – Political Art in Russia from 1972 to Now, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Ouverture, Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, France
Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, 52nd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
La città che sale. We try to build the future, ARCOS – Museo di Arte Contemporanea del Sannio, Benevento; MACRO – Museo di Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome, Italy
2006
Heads, Sprovieri, London, UK
Arteast 2000+23, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
The Grande Promenade, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA; LUMA Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, IL; Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY; School of Visual Arts, New York, NY; Visual Arts Building and Gallery, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA; Hillside Terrace, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan; Fundación Canal, Madrid, Spain; Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA; Muzeul Național Brukenthal, Sibiu, Romania; Nobel Prize Museum, Stockholm, Sweden; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX, USA
Everyday Every Other Day, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada
Artists Against the State: Perestroika Revisited, Feldman Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Freud and Contemporary Art: The Collection of the Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, NY, USA
Le Mouvement des images, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Kust brengt Kunst, 2006 Beaufort Triennale, Oostende, Belgium
Neo-Sincerity: The Difference Between the Comic and the Cosmic is a Single Letter, Apex Art, New York, NY, USA
2005
Flashback: eine Revision der Kunst der 80er Jahre, Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland
Senza confine, Galleria Continua, Sam Gimignano, Italy
RUSSIA!, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA
H.C. Andersen – en livsverden. Installationer af Joseph Kosuth og Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark
Künstlerarchiv, Archiv der Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
Open Systems: Rethinking Art c.1970, Tate Modern, London, UK
(my private) Heroes, MARTa Herford, Herford, Germany
Generation of Art: 10 Years at FAR, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy
Manmano, Galleria Continua, Beijing, China
Monuments for the USA, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA
Kunst in Schokolade, Museum Ludwig and Imhoff-Stollwerck Museum, Cologne, Germany
Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist's Eye, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, USA
1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
2004
L'artiste éditeur, FRAC-Artothèque Nouvelle-Aquitaine Limousin, Limoges, France
Vidas Imaginárias, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
Continental Drift: Installations by Joan Jonas, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Juan Muñoz, Yinka Shonibare, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, USA
Arti e Architettura: 1900/2000, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, Italy
Continental Breakfast, 45th October Salon, Kulturni centar Beograda, Belgrade, Serbia
Privatgrün 2, Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage, Cologne, Germany
North Fork / South Fork: East End Art Now, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, USA
Transcultures, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
Passage Europe: Realities, References. A Certain Look at Central and Eastern European Art, MAMC, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Étienne Métropole, Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, France
Artists' Favourites: An Exhibition in Two Acts, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
Fotografia verbal: Ilya Kabakov, Boris Mikhailov e o Arquivo de Moscovo da Nova Arte, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal
The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment, State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russia
Public/Private – Tumatanui/Tumartaiti, 2nd Auckland Triennial, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
ev+a 2004 – Imagine Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Climats, cyclothymie des paysages, Centre international d'art du paysage Île de Vassivière, Beaumont-du-Lac, France
2003
Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art and Life, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Berlin – Moskau / Moskau – Berlin 1950–2000, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russia
Traumfabrik Kommunismus, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
No art = no city!: Stadtutopien in der zeitgenössichen Kunst, Städtische Galerie im Buntentor, Bremen, Germany
LEGACY: A Benefit Exhibition of Works by Capp Street Project Alumnae, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA
Identität Schreiben. Autobiografie in der Kunst, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Projektes Gartenlandschaften Ostwestfalen-Lippe (org. Kunsthalle Bielefeld), Gut Böckel, Rödinghausen, Germany
Utopia Station, Arsenale, 50th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Ciudad Ideal / The Ideal City, Bienal de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
The Labyrinthine Effect, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
Die Sammlung, Kunsthalle Göppingen, Göppingen, Germany
Disegnando, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
Micropoliticas: Arte y cotidianidad (2001–1968), EACC Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló, Castelló, Spain
2002
Comer o no Comer, Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
A Perspective on Contemporary Art: Continuity / Transgression, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Sand in der Vaseline – Künstlerbücher II: 1980–2002, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld; Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt; Neues Museum – Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany
L'art mol et raide, MAC Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France
The Russian Patient: Ilya Kabakov, Oleg Kulik, Dmitry Prigov, Tatiana Liberman, Gosha Ostrezov, Timur Novikov, Freud Museum, London, UK
Malevich, e o Cinema / Malevich, Cinema and Beyond, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal; Serpentine Galleries, London, UK; Fundación La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain
Europaweit – Kunst der 60er Jahre, Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe; Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg Halle, Halle, Germany
Zeitmaschine. Oder: Das Museum in Bewegung, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Caixa Forum Exhibition Opening, Fundación La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain
2001
Pavel Pepperstein und Gäste, Kunsthaus Zug, Zug, Switzerland
Ein Raum ist eine Welt, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Plateau of Humankind, Arsenale, 49th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Home / Homeless, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden
The First 10 Years: Selected Works from the Collection, IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2000
Das Gedächtnis der Kunst. Geschichte und Erinnerung in der Kunst der Gegenwart, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
A Matter of Scale, Dalton Gallery and Bradley Observatory, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA, USA
Visions du Futur: Une histoire des peurs et des espoirs de l'humanité, Réunion des Musées Nationaux – Grand Palais, Paris, France
Artisti Collezionisti, Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy
Pavel Pepperstein, Ilya Kabakov: How to Meet an Angel, Sprovieri, London, UK
Art and Industry 2000 Biennial Contemporary Visual Arts Festival, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, New Zealand
Positions, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Quartett. August 1968 September 2000: Baldessari, Kabakov, Kosuth, Pistoletto, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2000, Echigo-Tsumari Region, Niigata Prefecture, Japan
Arteast 2000+ International Collection: The Art of Eastern Europe in Dialogue with the West, From the 1960s to the Present, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Bons baisers de Russie, Festival Garonne 2000, Toulouse, France
12th Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia
Around 1984: A Look at Art in the Eighties, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, NY, USA
Between Cinema and a Hard Place, Tate Modern, London, UK
Hier, da und dort. Kunst in Singen, Landesgartenschau Singen 2000, Singen, Germany
Herausforderung Tier. Von Beuys bis Kabakov, ZKM – Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe, Germany
Stanze e Segreti, Rotonda della Besana, Milan, Italy
Over the Edges: The Corner of Ghent, S.M.A.K. – Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium
L'autre moitié de l'Europe, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
Telstra Adelaide Festival of Arts 2000, University of South Australia Art Museum, Adelaide, Australia
Quotidiana. Immagini della vita di ogni giorno nell'arte del XX secolo, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
Das fünfte Element – Geld oder Kunst, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
Interventions. New Art in Unconventional Spaces, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, USA
1999
Zeitwenden – Rückblick und Ausblick, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, 20er Haus, Vienna, Austria
The Corridor of Two Banalities (with Joseph Kosuth), Center for Contemporary Art, Kiev, Ukraine
Culbutes: Oeuvre d'impertinence, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
Millennium Messages, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY, USA
Art Focus 3: International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Merrill Hassenfeld Amphitheatre, Sultan's Pool, Jerusalem, Israel
Get Together: Kunst als Teamwork, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Lifescapes: New Displays from the Collection, IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Les Champs de la Sculpture 2000, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France
World Views: Maps & Art, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Theater der Welt – Theater der Zeit 99, Beelitz Heilstätten, Berlin, Germany
Cosmos: From Romanticism to the Avant-Garde, 1801 to 2001, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada; Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
de Opening, S.M.A.K. – Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium
Examining Pictures: Exhibiting Art, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL; Armand Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s–1980s, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA
Fragilité – Absurdité, Galerie Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf, Germany
1998
50 espèces d'espaces, Centre de la Vieille Charité and MAC – Galeries contemporaines des Musées de Marseille, Marseille, France
The Promise of Photography: The DG Bank Collection, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany; Centre national de la photographie, Paris, France; Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
7. Triennale der Kleinplastik 1998: Europa Afrika. Zeitgenössische Skulptur aus Europa und Afrika, Stuttgart, Germany
3 Räume – 3 Flüsse. Ihr wart ins Wasser eingeschrieben, Hannoversch Münden, Germany
Innenleben. Die Kunst des Interieurs: Vermeer bis Kabakov, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt, Germany
Arte all'Arte 98, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Siena, Italy
Crossings, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Ensemble Moderne: The Still Life in Modern Art, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Fotografie als Handlung, 4. Internationale Foto-Triennale, Galerien der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar, Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany
Szenenwechsel XIV, MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
Aavan meren tällä puolen, Nykytaiteen museo Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
Leaving Tracks: artranspennine98. An Exhibition of International Contemporary Visual Art, Upper Campfield Market, Manchester, UK
You Can't Go Home Again: The Art of Exile, Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, VT; Philadelphia Art Alliance, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Les frontières de la conscience / The Edge of Awareness, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and United Nations Building, New York, NY, USA; SESC de Pompéia, São Paolo, Brazil; Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, India; Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
Vienna Secession 1898–1998: The Century of Artistic Freedom, Secession, Vienna, Austria
Ilya Kabakov / Gary Goldstein, Galerie Clara Maria Sels, Düsseldorf, Germany
Sår: Mellan demokrati och förlösning i samtida konst, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Een Ontemoeting, Vstrecha / The Meeting: Jan Fabre and Ilya Kabakov, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium; Rozenboomkammer, Diepenheim, Netherlands; Ar/ge Kunst Galerie Museum, Bolzano, Italy
1997
P.S.1 Reopening, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, NY, USA
La Collection: les chefs-d'oeuvre du Musée National d'Art Moderne, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Drawing Transfigured: Works on Paper from the Ludwig Collection 1960–70s, Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
At the Threshold of the Visible: Minuscule and Small-Scale Art 1964–1996, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA; Decker and Meyerhoff Galleries, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MA, USA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Canada; Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, Virginia Beach, VA, USA; Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA, USA; Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Canada; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA, USA
Skulptur. Projekte in Münster 1997, Münster, Germany
Future, Present, Past, 47th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Artists for Sarajevo, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy
Die Epoche der Moderne – Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
Inside, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Sequences: As You Can See. Conceptual Works from the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Whitney Biennial 1997, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA
Meditations, Ben Youssef Madrasa, Marrakesh, Morocco
1996
Stimmen hinter der Tür, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Ilya Kabakov / Joseph Kosuth: Koridor dvoch banalít, Považská galéria umenia v Žiline, Žilina, Slovakia
Universalis, 23rd Bienal de São Paulo, Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, São Paulo, Brazil
Le Cirque 96, Cirque d'Hiver, Paris, France
Les Péchés capitaux 1 – La Paresse, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Urban Evidence: Contemporary Artists Reveal Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, USA
Zeil-Fenster, Frankfurt, Germany
Judenplatz Wien 1996, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; School of Architecture, London, UK
22nd G7 Summit, Musée d'art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France
Ausstellung: Die Galerie, Galerie Wewerka & Weiss, Berlin, Germany
Judenplatz Wien 1996: Wettbewerb, Mahnmal und Gedenkstätte für die jüdischen Opfer des Naziregimes in Österreich, 1938–1945, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Strangers in the Arctic: Ultima Thule and Modernity / Muukalaisia arktisessa– Ultima Thule ja moderni aika, Rundetårn, Copenhagen, Denmark; Porin taidemuseo, Pori, Finland; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
EV+A 96: Twentieth International Biennial of Visual Art, Limerick, Ireland
1995
Zubia, El Puente, MOCT, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain
Létat, odejít, zmizet: Moskevské konceptuální umění / Flug – Entfernung – Verschwinden: konzeptuelle Moskauer Kunst, Galerie hlavního města Prahy, Prague, Czech Republic; Stadtgalerie im Sophienhof, Kiel, Germany
Orientation: The Vision of Art in a Paradoxical World, 4th International Istanbul Biennial, İstanbul Kültür Sanat Vakfı, Istanbul, Turkey
From the Collection: Abstraction, Pure and Impure, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
From Gulag to Glasnost: Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Art as Witness, 1995 Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
Donald Judd and His Friends, Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria
Russian Jewish Artists in a Century of Change: 1890–1990, Jewish Museum, New York, NY, USA
Absolutely International, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Dialogues de paix, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
Szenenwechsel VIII, MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
Zeichen & Wunder. Niko Pirosmani (1862–1918) und die Kunst der Gegenwart, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Els límits del museu, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain
Soviet Nonconformist Art from the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection, Stedman Art Gallery, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, USA
Kunst im Verborgenen. Nonkonformisten Rußland 1957–1995. Sammlung des Staatlichen Zarizino-Museums, Moskau, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen; Staatliches Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg, Germany
Africus, 1st Johannesburg Biennale, Johannesburg, South Africa
1994
Virtual Reality, 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Do It, Kunsthalle Ritter, Klagenfurt, Austria
Face-Off: The Portrait in Recent Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE; Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC, USA
Ivan Chuikov, Ilya Kabakov, Vadim Zakharov, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium
Personal Stories: A History of the Universe, Hammond Galleries, Lancaster, OH, USA
Züge Züge: die Eisenbahn in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Galerien der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar, Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany
Cloaca Maxima, Museum der Stadtentwässerung, Zürich, Switzerland
Europa, Europa. Das Jahrhundert der Avantgarde in Mittel- und Osteuropa, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany
Ilya Kabokov / Joseph Kosuth: Korytarz dwóch banalnósci / The Corridor of Two Banalities, Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland
Tyrannei des Schönen. Architektur der Stalin-Zeit, Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria
Toponimias: ocho ideas del espacio, Fundación La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain
Don't Look Now, Thread Waxing Space, New York, NY, USA
1993
Widerstand: Denkbilder für die Zukunft, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
The Russian World in Transition, Lehman College Art Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Stalin's Choice: Soviet Socialist Realism 1932–1956, Institute for Contemporary Art, P.S.1, Queens, NY, USA
Russische Avantgarde im 20. Jahrhundert: Von Malewitsch bis Kabakov, die Sammlung Ludwig, Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Cologne, Germany
From Chaos to Creation: Russian Art 1971–1992, Rye Arts Center, New York, NY, USA
Like a Body Without a Shadow, Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA
Das Fremde – Der Gast, OK Offenes Kulturhaus Oberösterreich, Linz, Austria
Old Symbols, New Icons in Russian Contemporary Art, Stuart Levy Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Die Sprache der Kunst, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
Et tous ils changent le monde… , 2e Biennale d’art contemporain, Halle Tony Garnier, Lyon, France
Taejon Expo '93, Daejeon, South Korea
After Perestroika: Kitchenmaids or Stateswomen, Le Centre international d'Arte Contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada; Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY; DePree Art Center, Hope College, Holland, MI; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA; Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, Worcester, MA, USA
Summer '93, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
Red Pavilion, Russian Pavilion, 45th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Time, Place, Memory, Jewish Museum, New York, NY, USA
Drawing the Line Against AIDS, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
L'adresse provisoire pour l'art contemporain russe, Musée de La Poste, Paris, France
Het Depot, Galerie Akinci, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The End of Empire or the Experiments of Visual Poetry, Domaine de Kerguehennec, Bignan, France
Rendez(-)Vous: Objects / Voorwerpen, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent, Belgium
Seichnungen setzen Zeichen – 44 Künstler der Documenta IX: Arbeiten auf Papier, Galerie Raymond Bollag, Zürich, Switzerland
Rencontres, Le Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France
På Kanten af kaos, nye billeder af verden, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
1992
Über Malerei – Begegnung mit der Geschichte, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna, Austria
Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Illustration as a Way to Survive: Ülo Sooster – Ilya Kabakov, Kanaal Art Foundation, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten, Kortrijk, Belgium; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, UK
Seville Expo '92, Seville, Spain
A Mosca… a Mosca, Villa Campolieto, Ercolano; Galleria comunale d'arte moderna, Bologna, Italy
documenta IX, Kassel, Germany
Blast Art Benefit, X-Art Foundation and Blast, New York, NY, USA
Ex USSR: Hedendaagse Kunstenaars uit het GOS, Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands
Particular Histories, Butyrskaya Prison, Moscow, Russia
Just Pathetic, American Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
1991
New Directions, Jane Vorhees Zimmerli Museum of Art, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Wanderlieder, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Ilya Kabakov / John Scott, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
Schwerelos, Große Orangerie Schloß Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany
50 artistes pour le 25 anniversaire, Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France
Zero Gravity, Henry DeFord III Gallery, Queens, NY, USA
Dislocations, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
Carnegie International 1991, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Transmission: konst i interkulturell limbo, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden
Art on Edge, Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Karuizawa, Japan
In Public: Seattle 1991, Security Pacific Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA
Sowjetunion: Kunst, Europa, Kunstverein Hannover, Hanover, Germany
Soviet Contemporary Art: From Thaw to Perestroika, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Artistos Rusos Contemporáneos, Auditorio de Galicia, Salas de exposiciones, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Nachtregels: words without thoughts never to heaven go, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands
Sowjetische Kunst um 1990, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Weisbord Exhibition Pavilion, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; Tsentralny Dom Khudozhnika, Moscow, Russia
MANI Museum: 40 Moskauer Künstler im Frankfurter Karmeliterkloster, Karmeliterkloster, Frankfurt, Germany
Heimat, Galerie Wewerka & Weiss, Berlin, Germany
Bilder zur Bibel heute, Dominikanerkloster, Frankfurt; Evangelische Akademie Iserlohn, Iserlohn; Evangelische Stadtakademie, Bochum, Bochum, Germany
Perspectives of Conceptualism, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Honolulu, HI; The Clocktower Gallery, New York, NY; Fine Arts Center, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, USA
1990
Rhetorical Image, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, USA
Works on Mulberry Paper, Seoul International Art Festival, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Devil on the Stairs. Looking Back on the Eighties, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA, USA
The Quest for Self-Expression: Painting in Moscow and Leningrad 1965–1990, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR, USA
Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit. Berlin 1990. Ein Ausstellungsprojekt in Ost un West (org. DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Galerie, Berlin), Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany
New Works for Different Places: TSWA Four Cities Project, Orchard Gallery, Londonderry, UK
Soviet Contemporary Art 1990, Alpha Cubic Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Between Spring and Summer: Soviet Conceptual Art in the Era of Late Communism, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, USA
Adaptation and Negation of Socialist Realism: Contemporary Soviet Art, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT, USA
Artistas rusos contemporaneos, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain
In de USSR en erbuiten, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Readymade Boomerang. Certain Relations in 20th Century Art, 8th Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Artisti Russi Contemporanea, Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
1989
Pictures for the Sky: Art Kites (org. Goethe-Institut Osaka), Osaka, Japan
Painting, Grafika, Moscow Artist Union, Moscow, Russia
The Green Show, Exit Art, New York, NY, USA; Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina Public Library, Regina; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Canada
Avant-Garde – Revolution – Avant-Garde: Russian Art from the Michail Grobman Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Histoires de sculpture, Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France
Schenkung der Künstler John Baldessari, Pierpaolo Calzolari, Georg Herold, Jenny Holzer, Joseph Kosuth, Ilya Kabakov und Franz West and das Sigmund Freud-Museum anläßlich des 50. Todestages Sigmund Freuds, Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria
Wittgenstein: Das Spiel des Unsagbaren, Secession, Vienna, Austria; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Magiciens de la Terre, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Foto v Zhivopisi / Behind the Ironic Curtain, Pervaia Galeria, Moscow, Russia; Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Post-Utopia. Paintings and Installations by Soviet Conceptualists: Bulatov, Kabakov, Komar & Melamid, South East Massachusetts University Art Gallery, Dartmouth, MA, USA
1988
Russian Avant-Garde of the Early Twentieth Century: Works on Paper from the Michail Grobman Collection, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
Erik Bulatow, Wladimir Jankilewski, Ilja Kabakow, Oleg Wassiljew, Kupferstich-Kabinett – Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, East Germany
Aperto, Arsenale, 43rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Kabakov – Piwowarow, Neue Galerie, Schlössli Götzental, Dierikon, Switzerland
Ich lebe – ich sehe: Künstler der Achtziger Jahre in Moskau, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Erik Bulatov – Ilya Kabakov, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, West Germany
1987
Gegenwartskunst aus der Sowjetunion: Ilya Kabakow und Iwan Tschuikow, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland
1986
Die Wahlverwandtschaften. Zitate. Steirischer Herbst ’86, Stadtmuseum Graz, Graz, Austria
1985
Ausstellung Moskauer Künstler: Jankilevski, Kabakov, Štejnberg¸ Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Forschung, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld; Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum, West Germany
1984
Fotografia i Iskusstvo, Tartu Kunstimuuseum, Tartu, Estonia
1983
Vystavka zivopisi, Moskovskii Obedinyonnyi Obedinennyi Komitet Khudozhnikov-Grafikov, Moscow, Russia
1982
Peinture russe contemporaine 1971–1981, Galerie Gorky, Paris, France
Fotografiya i Tsivopis, Tsentr Tekhnicheskoy estetiki, Moscow, Russia
Vystavka zivopisi, Moskovskii Obedinyonnyi Obedinennyi Komitet Khudozhnikov-Grafikov, Moscow, Russia
1981
Twenty-five Years of Soviet Unofficial Art 1956–1981, CASE Museum of Soviet Unofficial Art, Jersey City, NJ, USA
Nouvelles tendances dans l'art non officiel russe 1970–1980, Centre culturel de la Commanderie des Templiers de la Villedieu, Élancourt, France
Russian New Wave, Soho International Art Center, New York, NY, USA
1979
20 Jahre unabhängige Kunst aus der Sowjetunion, Museum Bochum, Bochum, West Germany
La Quatrième dimension du carré, Mart Galerie, Rockenberg, Germany
New Art from the Soviet Union: An Exhibition of Non-Conformist Art from the 1960s and 1970s, St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City, MD, USA
Tsvet, forma, prostranstvo, Moskovskii Obedinyonnyi Obedinennyi Komitet Khudozhnikov-Grafikov, Moscow, Russia
1978
Aspects and Documentation of Nonconformist Artists from the Soviet Union, Museo Civico, Lodi, Italy
New Unofficial Soviet Art, Museo Bellinzona, Bellinzona, Switzerland
La nuova arte sovietica, Palazzo Reale, Turin, Italy
Russische Künstler der Gegenwart, Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken, West Germany
1977
La nuova arte sovietica: una prospettiva non ufficiale, Biennale del dissenso culturale, Venice, Italy
Art et Matière, Orangerie du Luxembourg, Paris, France
Unofficial Russian Painting, 1977, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK
New Art from the Soviet Union, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
1976
La peinture russe contemporaine, Palais des Congrès de Paris, Paris, France
Musée d’art russe en exil, Musée municipal Josèphe Jacquiot, Montgeron, France
1975
Nonkonformistische russische Maler: Sammlung Alexander Gleser, Galerie Christian Brandstätter, Vienna, Austria; Kunstamt Charlottenburg, Berlin; Konstanzer Kunstverein, Konstanz; Städtische Galerie Fähre, Bad Saulgau; Kunstverein Braunschweig, Brunswick, West Germany
Russische Februar '75 in Wien, Künstlerhaus Wien, Vienna, Austria; Palais de Congrès de Paris, Paris, France
1974
Progressive Strömungen in Moskau, 1957–1970, Museum Bochum, Bochum, West Germany
1973
Russische Kunst der Gegenwart – Grafiken der Avantegarde, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, West Germany
Avant-garde: Moscow-73, Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris, France
1970
Alexey Smirnov und die Russische Avantgarde aus Moskau, Kontskigalerie Fourmière Villa Egli-Keller, Zürich, Switzerland
Nuove correnti a Mosca: rassegna di 58 artisti della giovane avanguardia, Museo Civico di Belle Arti, Lugano, Switzerland
6 Sowjetische Künstler, Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zürich, Switzerland
Die Russische Avantegarde in Moskau heute, Galerie Gmurzynska-Bargera, Cologne, West Germany
1969
Nuova Scuola di Mosca: 30 artisti non ufficiali / Neue Schule von Moskau, Galleria Pananti Casa d'Aste, Florence, Italy; Interior Galerie, Frankfurt; Galerie Behr, Stuttgart, West Germany
1968
Café Siniaia Ptitsa (with Erik Bulatov), Moscow, Russia
1967
Giovani artisti di Mosca, Galleria Renzo Botti, Cremona, Italy
Quindici giovani pittori moscoviti, Galleria Il Segno, Rome, Italy
1966
16 plastykow moskiewskich, Sopot-Poznań, Poland
1965
Alternative attuali II: 2. Rassegna internazionale di pittura, scultura, grafica: omaggio a Magritte, omaggio a Mirko, omaggio a Baj: retrospettive antologiche, Forte Spagnolo, L’Aquila, Italy
1958
Diploma exhibition of work by students of art institutions in the USSR who graduated in 1957–58, V.I. Surikov State Art Institute, Moscow, Russia
Austria
Grazer Kunstverein, Graz
Belgium
M HKA – Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp
S.M.A.K. – Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent
Finland
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki
France
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Germany
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Greece
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
Italy
Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato
Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Trento
Norway
Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker
Russia
Art4.ru Contemporary Art Museum, Moscow
National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Slovenia
Moderna galerija, Ljubljana
Switzerland
Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel
UK
Tate, London
USA
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX
David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, Brunswick, NJ
2020
Grand Prix, Osten Biennial of Drawing Skopje 2020, Macedonia
2018
Exhibition of the Year, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into The Future, 7th Annual Awards, The Art Newspaper Russia
2015
Award for Excellence in the Arts, Appraisers Association of America, New York, NY, USA
2014
Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Ministry of Culture, France
Gold Medal for Achievements in Arts, National Arts Club, New York, NY, USA
2013
Medals for Life Achievements in Art, Moscow Art Academy, Moscow, Russia
2011
Louise Blouin Foundation Award, presented at the Louise Blouin Creative Leadership Summit, New York, NY, USA
Hermitage Society Award, New York, NY, USA
Innovation Prize, Moscow, Russia
2010
Cartier Prize, Art Masters, St. Moritz, Switzerland
2008
Praemium Imperiale, Japan Art Association, Japan
Order of Friendship, President of the Russian Federation, Russia
Honorary Academics of Moscow Art Academy, Moscow, Russia
2007
Doctor of Philosophy Honoris Causa, Sorbonne, Paris, France
2002
Oskar-Kokoschka-Preis, Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur, Vienna, Austria
2000
Doctor of Philosophy Honoris Causa, Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland
1998
Kaiserringträger der Stadt Goslar, Goslar, Germany
1997
AICA Best Show Award, The Life of Flies, International Art Critic Association, New York, NY, USA
1995
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Ministry of Culture, France
1993
Max Beckmann Prize, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Joseph Beuys Prize, Joseph Beuys Foundation, Basel, Switzerland
Honorary Diploma, Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
1992
Arthur Köpcke Prize, Arthur Köpcke Memorial Fund, Copenhagen, Denmark
1990
Aachen Art Prize, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
1989
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Fellowship, Artists in Residence Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service, Berlin, Germany