Olga
Grotova (b. 1986, Chelyabinsk) is an artist and poet living and working in
London and Paris. Her practice involves collecting and mapping stories of Soviet and
Eastern-European women that have been erased from established historical
narratives. Grotova undertakes research journeys to discover the lost histories
of communities and families from former Soviet states in order to dispel male dominated
and power-centric ‘official’ narratives. Her practice is a feminist
interruption into the Russian political narrative plagued by extraction,
patriarchy and imperialism. The erased her-stories create fractures and
inconsistencies in the official history and undermine the regime built on
terror, misogyny and militarisation.
Education
2014-2016 Royal College of Art, MA Painting
2011-2012 Chelsea College of Art, Fine Art
Selected Exhibitions
Solo and two-person
2024 Track II: (with Ahmad Fuad Osman), DRC no.12, Beijing
2023 The Friendship Garden, Studio Voltaire, London
2023 Olga Grotova, Cromwell Place, London
2023 Door to Door, The Shophouse, Hong Kong
2023 To my daughter I will say, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (screening)
2021 Fifth Wave, Moscow Museum of Architecture, as part of Garage Triennale
2019 Debris on a Luminous Plain, Centrala, Birmingham
Group
2024 Re-enchantment, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
2023 Abstract Reality, Kadist, Paris
Traces of a Cathode, S1, Sheffield
2022 Our Grandmothers’ Gardens, Les Rencontres d’Arles
Meeting Photography, NIDA, Vilnius
‘The Friendship Garden’ sound installation, Pawel Althamer’s ‘Silence’ garden, Moscow
The Unicorn and the lost kingdom, Osnova, Moscow
2021 Fifth Wave, Garage Museum of Contemporary art, Moscow
Olga Grotova, Josefina Nelimarkka and Alexander Montague-Sparey, Cromwell place, London
2020 Invisible Movements, Gromov DK, St. Petersburg
2019 Carrying histories, Oslo Kunstforening
Waters of the Volga (performance), Oslo Kunstforening
Sans (t)rêve et sans Merci, Cube, Moscow
2018 XVII. The Age of Nymphs, Mimosa House, London
The First Reading (Performance), Mimosa House, London
2017 Blue. 17, Osnova, Moscow
Seventeen, Centala, Birmingham
2016 RCA Degree Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London
Notes App, Dyson Gallery, London
2015 WIP show, Royal College of Art, London
RCA Secret, Dyson Gallery, London
2013 Tamizdat, New Holland, St. Petersburg
Megabodega, Family Business Gallery, New York
2012 Performance, ritual, symbolic action: rite as play, Hayward Gallery, London
A Joyful Archipelago’ Guest Projects, London
A Spring That We Have All Been Waiting For (Performance), Guest Projects, London
Coup D’Etat, Arthaus, London
Guest from the Future, Galerie8, London
Residencies
2023 Schoeni Projects, Hong Kong
2023 Les Recollets, Paris
2022 Cosmological Gardens, CAD+SR (facilitated by Pelin Tan and Rirkrit Tiravanija), Spoleto
2020 -
2021 Syllabus VI , Wysing Art Center in partnership with Spike Island, Studio Voltaire, Eastside Projects
and Iniva
2019 Praksis, Oslo
Awards
2022 Prix Decouvert, Les Rencontres d'Arles – Special Mention
2021 Garage Museum of Contemporary Art Field Research grant
SPACE Artist award
Elephant Trust grant
Publications
2022 The Syllabus, commissioned by the Wysing Arts Centre
‘The Friendship Garden’, Transitory White
2019 ‘Carrying Histories’ commissioned by Praksis, Oslo
2012 ‘A Joyful Archipelago’, commissioned by the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, London
Public collections
The Roberts Institute of Art, UK
Kadist, France and USA
Schoeni Projects, UK and Hong Kong
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Russia
Links
Olga Grotova interview for Studio International
Kadist
The Roberts Institute of Art collection highlights
Grotova on feminism, gardening and memory