Olga Mikhalchuk (b. 1989) is visual artist from Moscow region.

Olga tells stories, ironically, philosophizes in art. Photography and video as the main artistic media allow her to view global events through the prism of everyday life and personal experience. The focus of the author’s attention is psychology, the study of vulnerable spaces around and “inside” a modern person through a portrait, still life, landscape, interview.

Her personal projects and single shots were published in Republic, Colta.ru, “Russian Reporter”, “Ogoniok”, METRO and SNC. ”

The artist’s works are in museum collections: Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow; Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Winzavod Contemporary Art, Charitable Foundation for the Support and Development of Contemporary Art “Winzavod”, Museum ART4, GROUND.SOLYANKA gallery, PennLab gallery, as well as private collections in Russia, Canada, USA, England and Scotland.

Education and residences:

  • 2023-2024 Winzavod Open Studios, 10 season resident
  • 2023 GES-2 Photo basis [artistic printmaking practices, “Vaults”] resident
  • 2022-2023 MMOMA Free Workshops [videoart and photography]
  • 2020-2022 Rodchenko Art School, [documentary and contemporary photography]
  • 2006-2012 MSU Lomonosov, [TV-journalism and photography]

Awards:

  • 2024 Leica Oskar Barnack Award / nominee
  • 2022 Young Russian Photocontest / portfolio review winner
  • 2022 Young Russian Photocontest / award-winner and grant recipient for “The HARD” book
  • 2022 Argus. Photography among the arts / shortlist for “I am” series
  • 2021 Fotobookmarket dummy award / shortlist, “The HARD” dummy edition
  • 2021 Young Russian Photocontest / Jury Honorable Mention for “I am” series
  • 2021 “This is love” Fotokrok contest in Belarus / Jury Honorable Mention for “I am” series

Solo show:

  • “The HARD”, Innovation cultural center, Kaluga (2023)

Selected group shows:

  • “We dreamed about it tomorrow”, Winzavod Open Studios (2024)
  • “Open, close, repeat”, CCI Fabrika (2023)
  • “Species-specific traits”, Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2023)
  • “I will take vengeance on world with love”, GROUND.SOLYANKA gallery, Moscow (2023)
  • “Bad video art festival”, Auditoria, Tbilisi (2023)
  • “The Upcoming Uncertainty”, Сube.Moscow (2023)
  • “To the City and the World”, Kontora parokhodstva, Tyumen (2023)
  • “17”, PennLab Gallery, Moscow (2022)
  • “Graduates '22”, Zaryadye, Moscow (2022)
  • “Zherdela”, Center for Contemporary Art Makaronka, Rostov-on-Don (2022)
  • “Metamorphoses”, Chetverg Foundation, Moscow (2022)
  • “Roots”: photobooks, FAB8, Novosibirsk (2022)
  • Argus. Photography Among the Arts, Winter Theatre, Sochi (2022)
  • Young Russian Photocontest (finalists exhibition), Kaluga, Tula, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Russia (2021, 2022)
  • “New sincerity. Post-irony”, Wall, online gallery, Russia (2021)
  • “Simulacra”, Open Club Gallery, Moscow, Russia (2021)
  • “This is love”, Fotokrok festival, Vitebsk, Belarus (2021)
  • “The man and the machine”, Loosen Art gallery, Rome, Italy (2020)
  • “Informational detox”, Free gallery, Staryi Oskol, Russia (2020)
  • “Man in translation”, Izmaylovo gallery, Moscow, Russia (2020)

Books and catalogues:

  • The HARD / Olga Mikhalchuk. — Moscow: [s. n.], 2022
  • Moscow in photos: In the area. Cultural Dynamics and artistic energy between the city center and the districts: Moscow and Vienna. — Moscow: Simon Mraz, Austrian Cultural Forum, 2020

Artist statement

As a visual artist with a background in journalism I am interested in narratives in which personal experience can be thought of as a part of a global system, in which the historical and modern contexts reside. My primary artistic focus drives me to create documentaries and staged photographs which contain themes that refer to the psychology of personality, mass culture and the sociology of everyday life.

I research spaces around and inside people’s mind by interviewing characters of portraits and reportages. My strong technical ability to create art in these media, paired with my strong sense of perception, allow me to embody conceptual ideas in a purely artistic form. Through the creation of art, I try to start a dialogue with my art’s viewers about values that are important to humanity, both right now and in the near future.

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