The Smallest Gallery in Soho is delighted to present artist Svetlana Ochkovskaya. Inhabited by a creature from Ochkovskaya’s series ‘Searching for a Place to Belong’, the gallery space will precipitate into topographical corpus of its new resident. Arising from the sea of pebbles, the cryptic creature exscribes towards encountering the passers-by but shies away blending with its natural environment.
Treating the body as a unique organon of signs, constantly exchanging its exteriority and interiority; out|side|in reflects on this intertwining as an extension towards Corpus – a glorious materiality of what is coming, where existences take place and significations are abolished. The show is guest curated by Olga Tarasova.
About the Artist
Svetlana currently lives and works in Portsmouth, UK. Since graduating from the BA Fine Art course at Southampton Solent University in 2017, she has also completed Masters in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University of London, graduating in 2020. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include We Are Not Ourselves at the Stone Space and Jeannie Avent Gallery in London and Portal Fantasy at the K6 Gallery in Southampton. Svetlana won second place in the Sunny Art Prize in 2020. She has been shortlisted for the Zealous Stories Photography 2021; the Batsford Prize Award 2021, 2019, 2017; the Zealous Stories Performance 2020; the Visual Art Open Prize 2018; the Harvest Short Film Competition 2019; the Nasty Women International Art Prize 2018. She has received the Goldsmiths International Response Scholarship Award 2017. Svetlana has completed a residency and exhibited at Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth and shortlisted for the Platform Graduate Award in 2017. She has also completed residencies at Solent University and Sticks Gallery in Fareham. Recent publications include Ludvig Rage, Inside Artist and Trebuchet.
About the Guest Curator
With the background in Urban Design and Architecture, for the past 3 years Olga has been pursuing her passion for Art through research and curation. Completed a MRes in Art Theory & Philosophy in 2020, she is now undertaking a PhD in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, researching Phenomenology of Perception in relation to spatial experiences. Since 2018, she has been part of Chalton Gallery (now the UK Mexican Arts Society) curating Public Art programs and emerging artists’ shows.