Maria Agureeva was born in 1985.

Graduated from Saint Petersburg State University of Technology and Design (faculty of graphic design, 2003-2009), IKA (Institute of Contemporary Art, Moscow) (2014-2015). The artist works with installations, videos, performances, and sculptures. Lives and works in Los Angeles and Moscow.

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

• 2021 - Residence Via Farini (from December to January), Milan
• 2019 - Ruinart Art Patronat grant
• 2018 - 18th Los Angeles street art center (August to September).
• 2018 - Grant from TRUST FOR MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING.
• 2018 - the Winner of the special award, Laguna Art Prize.
• 2017 - Residence Unlimited New York (from February to April).
• 2013 - nominee of the Kandinsky prize.

PERSONAL EXHIBITION

• 2019 - Passing, Cosmoscow, patron of Ruinart, Moscow.
• 2019 - Dust, coaxial art Foundation, Los Angeles.
• 2018 - It will never be enough, Isabel Lesmeister gallery, Regensburg.
• 2018 - Pearl Dust will settle on the soft skin covering all the cracks, atrium gallery, 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles.
• 2018 - you can imagine what will remain after, Anna Nova gallery, Saint Petersburg.
• 2018 - Dust, Elektrozavod gallery, Moscow.
• 2015 - Binary promises, Parallel program of the 6th Moscow Biennale of contemporary art, Pechersky Gallery, Moscow.
• 2014 - gardens of compromises, Erarta Museum, Saint Petersburg.
• 2013-Those women who can destroy the infinite, Parallel program of the 5th Moscow Biennale of contemporary art, Pechersky Gallery, Moscow.
• 2012 - Citius, altius, fortius! Commodification, the Factory Project together with Gridchinhall, Moscow.
• The 2012 Excavations. Ground 0, Gridchinhall, Moscow.
• 2011 - a series of "Tormozit", gridchinhall, Moscow.
• 2011 - a series of "Tormozit", Gallery Kadieff, Helsinki.
• 2009 - series "Tormozit", AL Gallery, Saint Petersburg.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• 2022 - Kammerflimmern. Outdoor screening organized by ArtSect NFT Gallery х Digi-gxl. Nuremberg, Germany
• 2021 - Cosmoscow art fair, a-s-t-r-a gallery, Moscow
• 2021 - Women Artists. One and The Other, Gilyarovsky center (ArtsWanted), Moscow
• 2020 - No matter. What?, Leer-Emptyblank, Vienna
• 2020 - Personal contacts, Durden and Ray, Los Angeles
• 2020 - Where's the Remote?, SIT STILL PROJECTS, Connecticut
• 2020 - Mobius Loop, A-S-T-R-A gallery, Spring break art show NY, New York
• 2020 - Cosmoscow Art Fair, Moscow, Russia
• 2020 - ENTER Art Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark
• 2020-Technosphere, Supercollider Gallery x Femmebit, La spring art show, Los Angeles.
• 2019 - MMOMA 99/19, 20th anniversary exhibition, MMOMA, Moscow.
• 2019 - Recycle or die, Gum Red line, Moscow.
• 2019 - The Regenerates, Nook Gallery, Los Angeles.
• 2017 - Just cause, Black Ball Projects, new York.
• 2016 - Unofficial language, VINZAVOD center for contemporary art, Parallel program of the V Moscow international Biennale of young art, Moscow.
• 2016 - All eyes on me, VINZAVOD center for contemporary art, Moscow.
• 2016 - Nominibus Trivialibus, Sinonimis Selectis, MSU Botanical garden (Aptekarsky sad), Parallel program of the V Moscow international Biennale of young art, Moscow.
• 2015 - Mirrors, MMOMA, Moscow.
• 2015 - One in another. Art of new and old media in the era of high-speed Internet, MMOMA, Moscow.
• 2015 - Development of freedom, Factory Project, Moscow.
• 2013 - I wouldn't draw now, Parallel program of the 5th Moscow Biennale of contemporary art, Agency Art.Ru, Moscow.
• 2013 - state Order, VINZAVOD center for contemporary art, Moscow.
• 2012 - Project Cena (Price), Parallel program of the III Moscow international Biennale of young art, Agency Art.Ru, Moscow.
• 2011 - Art in Mind, Brick lane Gallery, London.
• 2010 - festival of contemporary art Psychonautics, Saint Petersburg.
• 2010 - Summary, All Gallery, Saint Petersburg.

"My main task as an artist is to show how the body becomes a hybrid space in which the materiality of human flesh is linked to individual consciousness and identity. This is caused by a General desire to change yourself to avoid social pressure, as well as an even greater desire to discover your true form and inner authenticity.

In my work, I focus on the contradiction between what is considered real and what is subjective about the human body. I explore the social norms of stamped attractiveness that push us to Polish our own image, as people Polish billions of images on the Internet. There is an internal conflict between the natural features of our appearance imposed by artificial standards and our willingness to oppose them with absolute truth. This dynamic pushes me to explore the boundaries beyond which the body becomes as much an object as any other.

I often work with synthetic materials because they refer to my themes of physicality, moving from authenticity to art. My work emphasizes that body transformation is referential, archetypal, and tribal, and is now becoming a form of modern secular religion. This forces me to explore the boundaries beyond which the body eventually becomes the same object as any other.

I am currently studying the interaction of the human body and the environment, which I deeply feel is inextricably linked as one ecology, one synergistic Union. Humanity, and especially artists, can no longer turn a blind eye to this problem because of how acutely we have all begun to feel the impact of changes in Nature on all of us."
Maria Agureeva

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Liza Tokareva is an award-winning contemporary artist based in Moscow. She has MFA Degree from The Surikov Art Institute in 2015 (the course monumental painting).  Also, she got MA Fine Art in The School of Contemporary Art “Free Workshops”. She is an active participant of many groups and solo exhibitions. 

"I try to use personal and collective experience to the sensitive cognition of the world and events taking place at the time of global changes. A person with his or her  vulnerability, inspiration, corporeality, changeability are in the center of my attention".
Liza Tokareva

PERSONAL AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS: 

• 2021 — Cube.Moscow, “Art for heart”, the charity exhibition  
• 2021 — WINZAVOD, Moscow Center for Contemporary Art, Winzavod.Open “Multiplicity” 
• 2021 — Zverev Center of Contemporary Art, The exhibition “Home sweet home” 
• 2021 — Peschanaya gallery, The Special Program of the 7th Moscow Youth Biennale of Contemporary Art, The exhibition “Family values” 
• 2020 — Online exhibition “#ямогуговорить”  
• 2020 — Sokol Workshop. Personal exhibition “The Event” 
• 2019 — CCIFabrika, The exhibition “Free Off” 
• 2019 — MOMMA, Performance “I am 30 years old” 
• 2019 — MOMMA, Dismorphophobia, or the war within your mind 
• 2019 — WINZAVOD, Moscow Center for Contemporary Art The exhibition of “Communities and Spaces” 
• 2018 — CCIFabrika, The collective project MOMMA the exhibition “Coordinate” 
• 2018 — Flacon Design Factory, the space CUBE, “Monumental Art MMXVIII” The collective exhibition of the monumental 2017 - Tsar tower of Kazan railway station “Pausing contemplation” 

ABOUT THE SERIES "TWO IN THE APARTMENT, NOT COUNTING THE DOGS"  

This project was conceived and implemented during the period of self-isolation. The main goal of the project was to study feelings, reactions, new experiences and  the state of a person inside a closed space at the moment of the World Pause and new reality. The project consists of several canvases, on which the different  emotional and sensory state of the author, who is one of the heroes of the paintings, is conveyed. The main characters are a man, a woman, a dog, the death,  furniture and a stage. All of them are located on an inverted plane, reminiscent of a stage tilted towards the viewer. This space has no walls, behind the stage there is  infinity and abstractness, reminiscent of a kind of thick fog. The characters of the paintings do not have facial features, they are impersonal, immobilized, like puppets,  which were seated by the puppeteer. It draws a parallel between reality and theatricality of what is happening. Home is like a stage where life takes place, where a  person is now forced to play his role. How does a person feel when he lives in a moment of global changes, world experiments and endless restrictions?