Dr. Regina Khidekel, Founding Director and Chief Curator

Dr. Regina Khidekel, a well-known art historian, critic and curator, received her Master's and Ph.D. from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. An expert on the Russian avant-garde, the 20th century and contemporary art, she published extensively in the art magazines such as Iskusstvo, Dekorativnoe Iskusstvo, Teatr, Tvorchestvo, and in 1990 she took the position of art director of the Diaghilev Art Center, the first unofficial art organization in St. Petersburg after perestroika.

In the United States since 1993, she has made her mark on the New York art scene curating a few dozens of large-scale group and solo exhibitions.  She founded the Russian American Cultural Center (RACC) in New York in 1998 and the Lazar Khidekel Society in 2010.

Dr. Khidekel’s professional career has also been well established through her publications of numerous articles in ARTNews, including "From Gulag to Glasnost : Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union" ARTNews, February 1996; "Layers" University of Maryland/Baltimore County Fine Arts Gallery, ARTNews January 1997; "Sergei Bugaev" ARTNews, April 1998; catalogs and books. Dr. Khidekel’s book “It’s the Real Thing”. Soviet & Post-Soviet Sots Art & American Pop Art was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1998 in conjunction with the exhibition at Weisman Art Museum (exhibition review: May Abbe "It's The Real Thing" ARTNews, June 1999, etc.) This book became a bestseller and college textbook as a significant contribution to the field of comparative studies of Russian and American art.

Through this focus, Dr. Khidekel realized the need to create RACC, an organization whose goal would be to bring together artists and audiences from the Russian-speaking and American communities. So, since then she has been promoting art exhibitions, literary series and performing events, concerts, film festivals, and intellectual forums.

Khidekel contributed to the catalogs and books, including those related to RACC, such as Lyubov Popova (NY, 1994), Lazar Khidekel: Suprematism and Architecture (NY, 1995), Russian Avant-garde: Work-in-Progress in Russian Constructivist Roots: Present Concerns (Maryland University, 1997), Traditionalist Rebels: Nonconformist Art in Leningrad in Forbidden Art. The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde (Curatorial Assistance, LA, 1998), Lev Meshberg. Points of Origin. A Retrospective Exhibition 1972-1999 (NY, 1999), Tamar Hirschl (Gregory Gallery, NY, 2000), In Malevich’s Circle: 1920s-1950s (The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia 2000), A Life of Colors (NY/CUNY, 2001), Surviving Suprematism. Lazar Khidekel (Judah L. Magnes Museum, CA, 2004), Family Album. Artists from St. Petersburg (RACC NY, 2006), Anna Rochegova (Bely Gorod, Italy, 2008) Homage to Diaghilev’s Enduring Legacy (RACC, NY, 2009), Floating Worlds and Future Cities. (RACC –YIVO Institute, NY, 2013), Building Drawings & Drawing Buildings, (RACC, London- New York, 2014), member of a curatorial team for the exhibition catalog and brochure “Fair Enough”- “Khidekel Element # Suprematism for Humanity”, Pavilion of the Russian Federation at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia (2014); Lazar Khidekel & Suprematism, Prestel Publishing (NY 2014);  “If it Were Not for Railways Vitebsk would not Have Become the Paris of the East” –  La Biennale di Venezia (Hatje Cantz, 2018); “Trajectory of Suprematism”. – Exhibition catalog: “Lazar Khidekel”. (Palace Editions, 2018), Lazar Khidekel and Suprematism as an Embodiment of the Infinite in: Celebrating Suprematism. New Approaches to the Art of Kazimir Malevich (Brill, London, 2018), Russian Émigré Artists in New York—"The Real Thing” (RACC, 2018); They will Understand Us in 100 Years (NY, 2020).

Dr Khidekel has made a substantial contribution to the scholarship on Lazar Khidekel through her cataloguing and organizational activities for the Lazar Khidekel Archive, her research, and her curatorial expertise, which has resulted in several international exhibitions, conferences, lectures and publications. Above all, she edited and contributed to the monographs Lazar Khidekel and Suprematism (Prestel Publishing, 2014) and They Will Understand Us in 100 Years (Нас поймут через 100 лет) (NY, 2020) and a conference and book: Lazar Khidekel and Suprematism as an Embodiment of the Infinite in: Celebrating Suprematism. New Approaches to the Art of Kazimir Malevich (Brill, London, 2018).

Dr. Khidekel has lectured on art history and the Russian avant-garde at Columbia University, Bryn Mawr, Parsons School of American Design, and Cooper- Hewitt Master’s Program. She participated in the International Symposium with her paper, A creation of a New Visual World at Yale University (1997); Russian Avant-garde - Work in - Progress at Maryland College Park University; Nonconformist Soviet Art at Fairfield University, CT; Malevich and Vitebsk (1919-1922) at The Judah Magnes Museum, CA (2004); Visual Power of Suprematism at Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2010 - 2011); The Last Futurist Panel - Target Margin's Lab at The Bushwick Starr; Russian art in the USA: 1990-2010 at St. Petersburg State University, 2012; Fate of Artists in Soviet Russia at Hunter College and Harriman Institute Of Columbia University, 2012. Regina Khidekel in 2014 organized five international symposiums dedicated to a centennial of Suprematism in AIA and Harriman Institute, New York, St. Petersburg, London and Baku, and lectured at the closing of Aviation and Avant-garde exhibition in Moscow; and the conference 100 Years of Suprematism, Harriman Institute of Columbia University, on December 11-12, 2015; Russian Émigré Artists in New York, Harriman Institute, 2018.

Regina Khidekel was featured in the documentaries: Regina. After the Exhibition by David Barish (USA, 1999), In America - The Russian Story (International Channel, 2003), Russians in New York by Isabella Willinger (Germany, 2005), Taming of a Talent (Channel One, 2011), 20 Years Later by Lesya Matsko (Paris, 2016)

Dr. Khidekel was awarded the Sign of Honor in 2006 by Roszarubezhcente from the Russian Center of International Science and Cultural Collaboration at the Russian Federation's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This honor recognizes her dedication and contribution to Russian-American cultural affairs. 2011 Person of Year, Forum, WFRJ; Letters and Citations: Senator Hilary Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Assemblymen A. Brook-Krasny, S. Symbrowitz (2012), Mayor De Blasio, etc.

News Mentions and Features
The New York Times, ARTNews, Art Papers, The New York Sun, The New Yorker, The Daily News, The New York Post, The Jewish Press, The Jewish Week, Paper Magazine, Capital Prospective, Downtown Express, Forward, Cultural Guide for Downtown, Time Out, NY Contemporary Art Galleries Guide, Voices of Lower Manhattan, Novoye Russkoye Slovo, Russian Life, International Channel, SBC, RTVI, RTN, Voice of America, Who is Who, etc.

Professional Affiliations

International Art Critic Association

SHERA - the Society of Historians of Eastern European, Eurasian and Russian Art and Architecture

Member of the Russian Union of Artists

Lazar Khidekel Society, President


INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Dr. Khidekel focuses on the RACC Internship Program and Volunteer Training based on the principles of equity, accessibility and inclusiveness and invites representatives of underrepresented demographic groups to introduce them to new topics, cultural experiences and spark a thirst for continuing education.

Books and catalogs by Regina Khidekel:

https://www.amazon.com/Regina-Khidekel/e/B001K7W58C

Please email us at russculture@aol.com