A contemporary Kazakhstani artist, photographer, videographer, critic, and curator, the founder of the magazine “Pygmalion” (1996–2001) and the artistic director of the School of Theory and Activism (“SHTAB”) in Bishkek (2012–2018, in collaboration with Georgy Mamedov). Her works include video, photography, installations, and publications. Key methods in O. Shatalova’s practice are symbolism, allegory, metaphor, play, and absurdity. Key themes are memory, the post-Soviet space, gender, mythology, corporeality, and feminism.
O. Shatalova studied at the Rudny Industrial University (Rudny, 1990–1993) and later earned a Master’s degree in psychology (2015–2023). Between 1998 and 2006, she attended seminars and workshops organized by the Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty (SCCA). She also participated in international residencies, including the ArtsLink International Fellowships: US Residency (2008) and Back Apartment Residencies (2015), and received the Prince Claus Award (2015) for addressing gender inequality in art.
Since 2004, O. Shatalova has been developing her artistic practice. She explores feminism and womanhood through Soviet symbolism, using the color red as a visual metaphor (“Red Flag,” 2008). She expands on this topic through the concepts of “envy,” “discontent,” and “cunning” (“Warning! Women,” 2005), and reinterprets the myth of eternal youth through the ritual of immersion in Cleopatra’s bath (“SPA Mummification,” 2009). In other works, O. Shatalova employs exaggeration to criticize the romanticization of manual labor and to expose its absurdity (“The Romantics,” 2015).
O. Shatalova co-curated several projects, including “STIILS-Enthusiasm: To Be or Not To Be” (“Koldo Art” Gallery, Bishkek, 2010), the Central Asian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (Venice, 2011), and “ВСЕЯ – The Wave of the Commune: The Kollontai Commune in Frunze in the 1970s” (“Luda” Gallery, Bishkek, 2015).
O. Shatalova’s artworks were exhibited in Kazakhstan and abroad: “Videoidentity: Sacred Places of Central Asia” (German Theatre, Almaty, 2004), “VAD” Festival (Casa de Cultura, Girona, 2005), the 10th Media Art Biennale “Freewaves” (Los Angeles, 2006), “Cologne Online Film Festival” (online, 2006), the 2nd Moscow Biennale (Moscow, 2007), “Non-Eroticism” (Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty, 2007), “Intervals and Borders” (Athens Center for Film and Video, Ohio University, 2008), and the 53rd Venice Biennale (Venice, 2009).
Information about O. Shatalova is stored in the collection of the Documentation project – the archive of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art – Almaty (SCCA).
Photograph provided by Oksana Shatalova