Biography
Varvara Shavrova (b. 1968) has lived and worked in Moscow, London, Beijing and Dublin where she is currently based. She studied at Moscow Polygraphic Institute (Fine Art) and MFA at Goldsmith College, London. She works in a wide range of media including photography, video, installation, site-specific works, curatorial projects and performance. She explores the archival elements of personal and family history within the Big History. She is also interested in the questions multiculturalism, identity, gender and geopolitics. Her work is cross-cultural and touches geographical borders.
Shavrova’s recent projects include Inna’s Dream solo exhibition at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art (2019), and Mapping Fates, multi-media installation in Lenin’s apartment in St. Petersburg (2017). Shavrova’s project The Opera received international acclaim and includes photography, sound and video installations, shown at The Temple Beijing (2016), Momentum Berlin (2016), the Gallery of Photography Ireland (2014), the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2014) and at Espacio Cultural El Tanque in Tenerife (2011).
Shavrova has done more than 20 solo exhibitions and curatorial projects in London, Dublin, Los Angeles, Berlin, Frankfurt, Moscow, St. Petersburgh, Shanghai and Beijing. She has received a number of awards including a fellowship from Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ireland, British Council Visual Artists' Awards, Dublin City Council Visual Arts Award, and received Culture Ireland awards for her solo exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai and Berlin, and British Council award for individual artists. Shavrova curated international visual arts projects, including The Sea is Limit exhibition at York Art Gallery (2018) and at Virginia Commonwealth University Art Qatar Gallery in Doha (2019), examining migration, borders and refugee crisis, and Map Games: Dynamics of Change, international art and architecture project at Today Art Museum Beijing, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, CAOS Centre for Contemporary Arts, Terni, Italy (2008-2010).
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