ALINA AND JEFF BLIUMIS :::: WORKS :: BIO :: CV :: CATALOGS :: PRESS :: CONTACT

They were both born abroad, but have been living in the United States for over twenty years. Alina received a BFA from the School of Visual Art, New York and Jeff received a BA from the Columbia University, New York. They started working as a team in 2000.

Their early projects were predominantly based on their own experiences of immigration. Over last ten years, their interest has gradually shifted into processing communal experience-defining social structures, considering cultural standards/norms and exploring foreignness as a condition that gives a new perspective to the familiar.

In 2005, during the Advanced Course in Visual Arts at Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy, Alina and Jeff created Shelter for Migrants-- site-specific installation placed in one of the city's ancient gateways, Porta Torre, in order to link the characteristics of a city's exterior and interior spaces with the contemporary dilemma of welcoming immigrants in search of work in richer countries.

In 2006, they were invited to participate in the Busan Biennale, where they showed Refuge-a site-specific installation on Haeundae Beach, Busan, South Korea. Refuge was composed by filling an old fishing boat with hundreds of foam replicas of dictionaries-from Korean to other languages-creating a symbol of migration and the carrying of cultural heritage from one place to another.

In 2007 they participated in a group show Left Pop, a special exhibition at the 2nd Moscow Biennale. Here they displayed a photographic journey called Moscow Diary. The work references Walter Benjamin's book Moscow Diary, where he describes his two-month-visit to Moscow during the winter of 1926-27. Using lenticular prints, the Bliumis' juxtaposed two images for each photograph. From the left-side, viewers were presented with contemporary images of the sites that Benjamin references from his walks through the city; the right-side presented mail-order-brides sourced from the internetÑquestioning both private and public passions.

In 2008 Alina and Jeff received the Art in Public Spaces grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Puffins Foundation grant and the Strategic Opportunity Stipends Program through the New York Foundation for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts to realize Language Barrier-a public art project in Lower Manhattan, New York--September 29-October 3, 2008. For this project, Alina and Jeff selected five different sites in lower Manhattan for their contemporary and historical significances, intervening various corridors with piles of foam dictionaries. The same year their installation Benjamin was purchased by Charles Saatchi Collection, and is a part of The Shape Of Things To Come, New Sculpture exhibition and book.

In 2007 Alina Bliumis was awarded the two years Six Points Fellowship, to initiate the Casual Conversations project. In 2009 Alina and Jeff completed Casual Conversations in Brooklyn--an anthropological inquiry into Brooklyn's immigrant communities that incorporated a public dialogue project and a series of artistic interventions, discussions, and actions that had taken place over the past two years. Alina and Jeff were awarded the Black and White Project Space residency, where they presented Casual Conversations in Brooklyn at a solo show, March-June 2009.

Jeff and Alina Bliumis's works have been internationally exhibited. Selected shows include the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (Moscow, Russia), Busan Biennale 2006 (Busan, South Korea), Assab One (Milan, Italy), Castlefield Gallery (London, UK), Andrea Meislin Gallery (New York, USA), Stanislas Bourgain Gallery (Paris, France), Centre dÕart Contemporain (Meymac, France), MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland (Cleveland, USA), Bat-Yam Museum (Bat-Yam, Israel), the Jewish Museum (New York, USA) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK).

Alina and Jeff Bliumis were awarded a number of grants, fellowships and residencies: Franklin Furnace Fund, New York, USA (2010-2011), Six Points Fellowship, New York, USA (Alina Bliumis 2007-2009), Trust for Mutual Understanding, New York, USA (2009 / 2006 / 2005), Black and White Project Space residency, Brooklyn, USA (2009), Art in Public Spaces Grant, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, USA (2008), Strategic Opportunity Stipend, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York, USA (2008), Puffin Foundations Grant, New York, USA (2008), Quartier21 residency, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria (2005) and Advanced Course in Visual Arts, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy (2005).

Their works are in various private and public collections, including the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Russia), Bat-Yam Museum (Israel), the Saatchi Collection (UK) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK).