A comparison of the practices of Doping-Pong and the duo of Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky

This article provides a comparative analysis of the artistic strategies of the art group Doping-Pong and the creative duo Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky within the context of post-Soviet art of the 1990s– 2010s. The study reveals differences in the artists’ approaches to working with Soviet heritage: Doping-Pong employs the practices of “cultural recycling” and “fake nostalgia”, creating stylized images of a lost past through a neo-academic painterly style. Vinogradov and Dubossarsky, by contrast, embrace kitsch aesthetics, capturing contemporary reality through a blend of Soviet-era symbols and the realities of post-Soviet capitalism. The article demonstrates how different models of post-Soviet identity are formed within the realist painting tradition: Doping-Pong’s nostalgic reconstruction of memory and Vinogradov and Dubossarsky’s ironic documentation of the present.

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