The book X Years in Art celebrates the ten year anniversary of the Antwerp based Nadya Kotova Gallery. Studying economics in the early 1990s in St. Petersburg—during the shift from a planned market economy to a free market economy in Russia—she initially didn’t think of becoming a gallerist or an art dealer. The turning point though was when she discovered the work of Igor Kislitsyn, who was—and still is—relatively unknown, partly because he is zealously religious. Kotova was strongly moved by Kislitsyn’s work and years later she moved to Antwerp and opened her gallery in 2012 with a clear vision: promoting Russian artists in Belgium. Since then she became the leading figure to do so, and now—ten years after—her gallery represents some twenty artists of which most are contemporary Russian artists.

X Years in Art shines light on Nadya Kotova’s history and on ten artists from the gallery, each featured in ten pages, explaining how the relationship with the gallery was established and displaying key works that were exhibited and sold during multiple shows at Nadya Kotova Gallery. The book includes works by Kirill Chelushkin, Danila Tkachenko, Didier Mahieu, Gosha Ostretsov, Hans Vandekerckhove, Oleg Maslov, Taisia Korotkova, Ivan Razumov, Alexander Pogorzhelsky and Oksana Mas.