On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood in front of the famed Brandenburg Gate, a checkpoint between East and West Berlin, and before a crowd of 20,000 cheering Germans, urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Russian-born artist Kon Trubkovich (b. 1979, Moscow) does not recall watching this fateful speech. For Trubkovich, the events of June 12, 1987, belong to a shared consciousness, forming a pivotal moment in history that happened to everyone and no one at the same time. Trubkovich, who immigrated to the United States when he was eleven years old, explains that he feels little connection to his life in the former Eastern Bloc, largely because the Soviet Union he knew no longer exists. As such, the notion of disconnection—from places, people, and experiences—features prominently in his work. Trubkovich’s Riley CAP Gallery
