NTERVIEW: «ART DOES NOT KILL, BUT IT CAN WOUND» FOR LONDON CULT.

June 2026

A comprehensive new interview with Kostya Benkovich has been published by London Cult. The conversation offers a deep, multi-layered look into the artist’s current projects, creative philosophy, and upcoming international milestones.

The discussion focuses on Benkovich's ongoing solo exhibition Fight the Power at ARC Space in London, as well as his major upcoming project at the National Museum of Arts of Moldova in Chisinau. Beyond exploring his future exhibition plans, this dialogue stands out as a highly personal reflection, with Benkovich sharing his inner thoughts, personal history, and the core values that truly drive his artistic practice today.

London Cult

GROUP EXHIBITION: DEUS EX MACHINA AT VANHA PAUKKU ART CENTER, LAPUA.

25 June - 30 August 2026

The international group exhibition Deus ex Machina brings together a diverse group of contemporary artists from Finland and around the world. The project is produced by the Lapua Artists' Association (Lapuan Taiteilijaseura ry) and curated by Anneli Di Francis.

At the exhibition, a painting and steel artwork Broken Heart by Kostya Benkovich is presented. This exhibition holds a deeply meaningful connection for Benkovich, as it takes place in his hometown of Lapua at the Vanha Paukku art center.

In this work, Benkovich employs his signature material language, utilizing industrial steel rebar to convey acute emotional resonance. Within the framework of Deus ex Machina, his piece enters into a dialogue with international peers, reflecting on structural forms and deep human themes.

SOLO EXHIBITION FIGHT THE POWER: CURATED BY JAMES PUTNAM AT ARC SPACE LONDON.

28 May - 30 June 2026

The project is organized by Bird&Carrot Productions in collaboration with Developing Artists Foundation and ARC Space.

At the exhibition, a new series of welded steel sculptures by Kostya Benkovich is presented. The Fight the Power project addresses a dramatic cultural paradox of the digital era, critically recalibrating the concept of protest. Today, rebellion signifies a struggle not just against political systems, but against the authority of consumer culture, digital surveillance, and synthetic illusions dictated by social media.

The central theme of the exhibition is the tragic phenomenon of the "20/21 Club"—a generation of young American rap artists who became hostages to their own digital footprints and the cult of luxury. The systemic demand for hyper-visibility, material obsession, and the continuous performance of status online turned them into highly vulnerable targets in the physical world.

Benkovich’s sculptures recreate the ubiquitous logos of global tech corporations and brands. Forged from industrial steel rebar—a material synonymous with prison bars, isolation, and aggression—they serve as a harsh skeleton for lives that were glamorous on the surface, catastrophic underneath. Operating as modern shrines commanding irrational public devotion, these corporate icons hide a controlling machinery that strips away human identity.

Shop

COLLABORATION: BENKOVICH X UMETALLI

We are pleased to announce the launch of a collaboration between the artist Kostya Benkovich and the Finnish brand Umetalli.

Umetalli is a leading Finnish brand, a pioneer in the production of welding tables and equipment for welding workshops. Their innovative solutions set a high standard in the industry.

Specifically for Benkovich’s studio, Umetalli has developed a series of welding tables in Yellow Traffic — the color of the artist’s well-known Yellow Duck tag. Each table features a label and engraving Benkovich X Umetalli, and the working surface carries an additional engraving of the Yellow Duck tag.

A limited edition series of Benkovich X Umetalli tables will be available soon on Umetalli’s website.

For Benkovich, this is an important step in his development, and he plans to continue collaborating with leading Finnish companies, creating joint projects, supporting partners, and exploring the intersections between art and technology.

Umetalli

ANNOUNCEMENT: KOSTYA JOINED THE SEINÄJOKI ARTISTS’ ASSOCIATION AND WAS NAMED ARTIST OF THE MONTH FOR MAY WITH HIS EXHIBITION BETWEEN

Kostya became a member of the Seinäjoki Artists’ Association — part of the Finnish Artists’ Association.

In May, he was selected as Artist of the Month and presented his exhibition “Between” at the Kalevan Navetta cultural center — a reflection on transition, choice, and boundaries. The central work, “Adam,” merges rebar and barbed wire, transforming materials that symbolize barriers into fragile forms of beauty.

The project marks the artist’s return to craftsmanship and to the creative process itself — calm and alive.

Seinäjoki Artists' Association

COLLABORATION: BENKOVICH X KEMPPI

We have signed a collaboration agreement with the Finnish company Kemppi, one of the world's leading manufacturers of welding equipment. Kemppi is among the top five largest producers and sets standards in innovation, software integration, and welding technology development.

As part of the Benkovich X Kemppi collaboration, Benkovich will become the brand ambassador and integrate Kemppi's latest equipment into his projects. In addition, Kemppi will equip his studio in Lapua with professional welding equipment, allowing him to work at a new technical level.

Benkovich will create a piece for the Kemppi collection, and the company will shoot a film for the advertising campaign.

GROUP EXHIBITION FRAGILE: CURATED BY DANIEL LISMORE AT THE BOMB FACTORY MARYLEBONE.

22 November - 8 December 2024

The project is organized by Bird&Carrot Productions and the Tsukanov Family Foundation.

At the exhibition, the installation The Suitcases, conceived in 2022, was presented. The Fragile exhibition became the first opportunity to showcase this work to a large audience. The installation consists of numerous suitcases and bags, united into a single structure of grids, symbolizing the lack of freedom and the fates of people forced to leave their homes. For a refugee, the suitcase often becomes the only link to their homeland, a place to store a few precious belongings and memories. The work draws attention to the tragic fates of those who have lost their homes.

Another work presented at the exhibition was The Right Hand of God, created in 2022 for the Kensington and Chelsea Art Week festival in London. Drawing on biblical themes, the work directly addresses war, highlighting the fragility of our world.

In addition, the work Cloud, created specifically for Fragile, was showcased. Initially, this project was conceived in collaboration with artificial intelligence, but for the exhibition, a physical object made of real barbed wire was created. The cloud became a metaphor for divine intervention in human affairs, referencing iconographic traditions. The barbed wire symbolizes harsh restrictions on freedom—prison walls, border fences, and military fortifications—creating a sharp contrast between the sublime and the violent.

SPEECH AT THE CEREMONIAL EVENT: ROBERT ALDRIDGE, THE RT. HON. LORD PROVOST AND LORD LIEUTENANT OF THE CITY OF EDINBURGH

Monday 23rd September 2024

Presentation of Suitcase Sculpture

I am pleased to offer you all a very warm welcome to the historic City Chambers. On behalf of the people of Edinburgh and the City of Edinburgh Council, I am absolutely delighted to receive and accept this poignant, powerful, and pointed, sculpture which will be a wonderful addition to the City of Edinburgh’s Fine Art Collection. “The Suitcase,” which is, I understand constructed from reinforced steel, and reminiscent of a series of bars which can themselves provoke feelings of confinement and release, brings into sharp focus, the very real impacts upon ordinary people of exploitation, oppressionand armed conflict.

The work really is a beacon, for drawing people to the powerful and deeply meaningful life-changing stories of those who continue to flee for their safety, with all their worldly goods held within the small space of a suitcase. The work, may also, further challenge the audience’s perceptions about how suitcases can be used - for leisure, or for fleeing persecution and war. And, of course, we will see the work, on display at key venues in the City in due course. Welcoming Edinburgh. Edinburgh is internationally known as a welcoming place, where anyone can live, work, and visit, and where everyone feels safe, secure, and included – irrespective of their background, traditions, culture, or faith.

Our shared city celebrates cultural diversity, which adds to the rich community fabric that we experience across our localities and within our neighbourhoods. People seeking or experiencing refuge in Edinburgh continue to contribute to our cultural and life experience, through their traditional music, song, poetry, festivals and other events and artforms.

I am sincerely grateful to Internationally acclaimed activist artist Kostya Benkovich for bringing “The Suitcase” to our Cultural Capital, for displaying it for thousands of festival goers to view at The Assembly Rooms, and for making such a generous donation to the City. I am also grateful to producer and curator Alexandrina Markvo for collaborating with Kostya in presenting the sculpture to our Capital. I am also especially indebted to you both for once again shining a light upon these very important international issues.

I wish you both continuing success with your work in the future.

Thank you.

ANNOUNCEMENT: ON 23 SEPTEMBER 2024 THE SUITCASE SCULPTURE WAS OFFICIALLY DONATED TO THE CITY OF EDINBURGH'S FINE ART COLLECTION

We are thrilled to announce that the sculpture Suitcase has been officially included in the City of Edinburgh's Fine Art Collection, the largest of its kind in Scotland. First unveiled at the Edinburgh Fringe Arts Festival in August 2022, the sculpture has garnered widespread public attention and received extensive media coverage globally. The project is proudly supported by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the UK.

A handover ceremony took place at City Hall on 23 September 2024, where the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Robert Aldridge, delivered a poignant and unforgettable speech. The interest and support from the City made this generous gift possible.

ANNOUNCEMENT: THE WATOU ARTS FESTIVAL

We are pleased to announce that the artist Kostya Benkovich has been selected to participate in the Arts Festival in Watou, Belgium. He will present his artwork "The Right Hand of God," created during his collaboration with Bird&Carrot Productions. Alongside him at the festival will be works by renowned artists such as Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Mat Collishaw, Christopher Bucklow, Ellen Gallagher, and others who have gained global recognition.

An international jury chaired by Koen Vanmechelen and including Dirk Draulans, Jo Coucke, Marjan Doom, James Putnam, Edith Doove, Michaël Vandebril, Sabiha Keyif and Loes Vandromme carefully selected the participants for this prestigious event.

Watou 2024

EDVARD MUNCH: THE SCREAM

The book chronicles the influence of The Scream on popular culture, from the film of the same name to the Simpsons cartoon, the Home Alone movie poster, and social media emojis.

Ever since Munch first came up with the Scream motif at the end of the 19th century, countless artists, including Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Jannis Kounellis, Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois, Andy Warhol, Marina Abramovic, Konstantin Benkovich and others have modified it within their own work.

The Scream influenced almost all layers of culture. It is without a doubt one of the most reproduced images in the history of art, perhaps rivaled only by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

AUTHORS:

PATRICIA G. BERMAN

JOANNA IRANOWSKA

ØYVIND VÅGNES

MAGAZINE: FAD

Author of the article about Kostya Benkovich Mark Westall is the Founder and Editor of FAD magazine.

...What work are you showing as part of the KCAW Public Art Trail and where is it located?

I participate with my installation The Right Hand of God (and the Gory Deluge) which is showing in the historical Napoleon’s Garden, in Holland Park, Central London. It features the Right Hand of God towering above the rivers of blood...

FAD magazine

MAGAZINE: MEER

Napoleon Garden, Holland Park, London. Courtesy: KCAW Festival

Konstantin Benkovich, the Right Hand of God

Steel rebar and paint, height: 370 cm, width: 200 cm

The Bird&Carrot productions would like to announce the installation of Kostya Benkovich's monumental sculpture The Right Hand of God in historical Holland Park's Napoleon Garden.

Meer Magazine

BOOK: RUSSIAN ART IN THE MILLENNIUM

About the autauthors:

Edward Lucie-Smith is generally regarded as one of the most prolific and widely published writers on art. A number of his art books, among them Movements in Art since 1945, Visual Arts of the 20th Century, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Art Today are used as standard texts throughout the world.

Sergei Reviakin is a London-based Russian art authority and collector, and the reference point for all matters concerning the contemporary Russian art scene.

Russian art during the period under review – the last two decades – has been evolving rapidly and in many directions. Hence there are sections on digital art, landscape paintings, graffiti, religious art and others. Furthermore, in addition to the continuing influence of the traditional centres for art – Moscow and St Petersburg – a number of provincial Russian cities have developed distinctive art worlds of their own. Russian Art in the New Millennium attempts to discover this terra incognita and to encompass this extremely various, but also intensely national art scene in Russia in one volume

CATALOG: THE GENERAGENERATION OF THIRTY-YEAR-OLDS IN CONTEMCONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN ART

The catalog was published by the State Russian Museum

With the support of the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation

Scientific director: E. Petrova Author: A. Borovsky, A. Karlova, M. Saltanova

The publication is dedicated to the works of young contemporary Russian artists born in the 1980s - 1990s, and who today, by the beginning of the 2020s, are 30 years old. Includes three scientific articles that give a general assessment of the sociocultural situation in which artists work, and examine the work of authors who most clearly revealed the main directions of their searches. An album of illustrations, built on a monographic principle, introduces the most striking works artists presented in the publication, and from their short biographies.

CATALOG: 20.19

Solo exhibition “20.19” by Kostya Benkovich at the Triumph Gallery, Moscow

Text for the exhibition by Alexander Borovsky:

«Konstantin Benkovich appears to me to be the most fitting and fit-for success media artist of the late 2010s.»

Text: Alexander Borovsky

TRIUMPH GALLERY

Emeliyan Zakharov, Dmitry Khankin

NEWSPAPER: DE TELEGRAAF

Art placed in Moscow as a MH17 protest

By Paul Eldering

July 19, 2019

info@kostyabenkovich.com

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