Olga Grotova (b. 1986, Chelyabinsk) is an artist and poet living and working in London. 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


2022    Our Grandmothers’ Gardens, Les Rencontres d’Arles

               Meeting Photography, NIDA, Vilnius
               
              ‘The Friendship Garden’ sound work, 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   Debris on a Luminous Plain, Centrala, Birmingham (solo)

            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

 
2022      Cosmological Gardens, CAD+SR (facilitated by Pelin Tan and Rirkrit Tiravanija), Spoleto

2022       Atelier 17, Paris

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

             Developing Your Creative Practice, Arts Council England


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 Fund, London