Leta Dobrovolskaya

Born in 1975.

Artist, ISI “BASE”, Moscow

Graphic Artist, Moscow State University of Printing, Moscow

Leta Dobrovolskaya works with various media, including video, painting, graphics, sculpture and fabric printing. Often in her artistic practice, she explores the theme of the past, it can be anaesthetic dialogue with the Soviet heritage or references to the Baroque style. Leta is interested in the moment when a symbolic object turns into an object of aesthetic games and speculation. Her practice appeals to the creation of some semantic ambiguity and ambiguity. Often in her works she balances between understanding a household object to a conventional form, freeing this subject from vulgarity and literality, giving the object a new syntax. She is also interested in the topic of Slavic folklore, and how new forms and symbols can be created and used on the historical heritage. The theme of “new paganism” was reflected in Leta Dobrovolskaya”s last personal project “Floridura” in 2021. The artist reveals the act of accepting global climate change and a new reality through the creation of a new mythology and knowledge. This acceptance can be referred to as an extra phenomenological experience.

She has participated in a number of major international projects, including the Shanghai Biennale of Contemporary Art 2013, the IV Moscow International Biennale of Young Art (2014). Leta Dobrovolskaya’s objects and installations have been shown at many group exhibitions of various subjects at significant venues in Moscow, such as: “Do it” (2014, MC Garage, Moscow), “The Eternally Living Corpse” (2014, CSI Winzavod, Moscow), “Futuristic Mimicry” (2015, the Mayakovsky State Museum, Moscow), “Moscow Art Communities” (2015, Moscow Museum).
Personal projects:
“Settecento” (2017, Krasny Center, Moscow), “Deceptions” (2019, CSI Winzavod, Moscow), “Sliding Landscapes” (2021, International School, Kaluga). “Floridura” (2021, CSI “Fabrika”, gallery “Bomba”, Moscow).