Maria Kulikovska
Maria Kulikovska was born in 1988 in Kerch, Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. Following her studies in Kyiv and Stockholm, Kulikovska designed several architectural projects and gave lectures and workshops on contemporary art in Ukraine and abroad. She is known as a multimedia artist, performance artist, and master of political performance. Kulikovska has been forced to flee her home twice – first from Crimea in 2014 during the Russian annexation, and then once again from Kyiv in 2022 when the war erupted. Focused on creating sculptures using original ballistic soap and natural materials, her work explores themes of the body and its borders, gender and queerness, war and migration, women in a patriarchal society, and fragility of life.
As a multimedia artist, activist, researcher and lecturer, Kulikovska creates art that generates visceral responses in viewers. The nucleus of Kulikovska’s work is her own body, its perpetuation, its transformation and its decay. Throughout her oeuvre, the idea of her body is transformed into architectural structures made from natural materials, such as salt, milk or sugar, in order to deal with ideas of production, construction and de-construction. Her self-casted body sculptures invite us to ponder on social and political issues of feminism, queer representation, war, and human rights. The artist considers her watercolour and ceramic works as performative paintings, in which her oft-macabre, oft-nude subjects visualise her psychological distress over her sense of abandonment and loneliness that arose from her loss of agency in life.
Maria Kulikovska is currently living and working between London, UK and Kyiv, Ukraine. She graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv and Konstfack University in Stockholm. In 2017, she was selected for a residency at the Liverpool Biennial and held her first solo institutional exhibition at the Francisco Carolinum Linz, Austria in September 2022. Over the past year, her work has been shown in New York, Karlsruhe, Copenhagen, Wien, and Linz. In April 2022, Kulikovska was invited to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin to stage her durational performance “254”, during which the artist laid motionless on the steps of the museum covered by a Ukrainian flag. This unauthorized performance was first shown in 2014 during the opening of “Manifesta 10” in St. Petersburg, Russia. Its title “254” refers to the number that Kulikovska received while fleeing to Kyiv after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Under this number, she was registered as a refugee in her own country. Today her works are in key private and institutional collections including Art Collection Telekom, Germany; Odesa Fine Arts Museum, Ukraine; and Francisco Carolinum Linz, Austria.
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Untitled (Just Stop The War. As Many Men Died), 2022
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Untitled (Sorry, My Art Is Too Personal), 2022
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Watercolor Drawing on the Forms for Forensic Medical Examination, No. 2, 2020
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Watercolor Drawing on the Forms for Forensic Medical Examination, No. 8, 2020
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Green Figure, 2019
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Woman. Body. Borders. Power. Migration. Exile. Flowers. Treason. Love. Death. Life. Definitely life. Even, occupation, even war, even life everywhere and nowhere. Even fucking borders, a look from top to bottom from everywhere, but still I am alive, my li, 2018 - 2022
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The Garden of Fragility | Group Show
1 - 29 Jun 2024Double Q Gallery is pleased to present The Garden of Fragility, a group exhibition bringing together new works by three female artists from Central and Eastern Europe. The exhibition focuses...Read more -
Maria Kulikovska & Artem Volokitin | Resilience: Voices of Ukraine
16 Mar - 22 Apr 2023“Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at...Read more
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48 Artists to Join The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023
September 5, 2023Double Q Gallery is delighted to share that Maria Kulikovska will be participating in The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2023, which will run from September this...Read more -
THESE UNIQUE MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES ARE AMONG ASIA'S MOST UNDERRATED CULTURAL DESTINATIONS
May 31, 2023Art enthusiasts and travellers both domestic and foreign flock to the major art events in Asia throughout the year, with art fairs such as Art...Read more -
PERFORMANCE ‘LUSTRATION/ABLUTION’ BY MARIA KULIKOVSKA AT ZURICH ART WEEKEND 2023
May 22, 2023‘Lustration / Ablution’ is a long-term performance conceived by Ukrainian artist Maria Kulikovska, planned to be made 88 times in total. The first one was...Read more -
MARIA KULIKOVSKA AT THE ALBERTINUM MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, DRESDEN, GERMANY
May 17, 2023From now until 10 September 2023, the Albertinum is dedicating a comprehensive survey exhibition to modern Ukrainian art. Titled ‘Kaleidoscope of (Hi)stories. Ukrainian Art 1912–2023’,...Read more -
Queenie Rosita Law on Championing Central and Eastern European Art in Asia
April 20, 2023Director and founder of Q Art Group, Queenie Rosita Law shares her ambitions as a collector in Asia and her experience opening a gallery in...Read more -
MARIA KULIKOVSKA LIVE PERFORMANCE AT ALBERTINA MODERN, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
April 1, 2023From April 15 to 17, the exhibition of Ukrainian art ‘ART ON THE BATTLEFRONT’ will occur in the historical centre of Vienna. It will show...Read more -
11 MUST-SEE EXHIBITIONS DURING HONG KONG’S ART BASEL WEEK, FROM RESILIENCE: VOICES OF UKRAINE TO HKWALLS’ STREET ART
March 20, 2023Double Q Gallery is showing works by two displaced Ukrainian artists, Artem Volokitin and Maria Kulikovska, in an exhibition that highlights the war with Russia’s...Read more -
Ukraine 從上蒼與麥田領悟堅靱
March 17, 20232022年2月24日,筆者本來以為又是平常的一天,怎料如常打開社交媒體之後便發現普京已經向烏克蘭宣戰,並派兵全面入侵,試圖以最短時間吞噬烏國。一年後,戰爭不幸地依然持續,亦沒有停火的跡象。從事藝術行業的筆者過去不禁自問:藝術到底在世界戰火不熄的時刻有何作用?藝術無法轉化成支持前線的資金或物資;同時,在局勢緊張之際以藝術表達和平的理念又會被視為不切實際。不過正因為俄烏戰爭,藝術圈過去一年開始正視並留意中東歐的當代藝術家;國際藝術界積極地以不同商業和美術館展覽延續烏克蘭文化,為藝術家爭取更多機會,將他們的藝術品化為支持家國的動力。 在俄烏戰爭持續超過300天後,香港終於看到烏克蘭藝術家的蹤影。過去一直熱衷於支持中東歐藝術的香港企業家羅君兒 (Queenie Rosita Law) 除了在匈牙利布達佩斯創辦了非牟利展覽空間 Q Contemporary,去年也在香港開設了Double Q 畫廊,為大眾提供一個探索和認識中東歐當代藝術的國際平台。其畫廊今年度三月舉辦雙人展覽「堅韌:烏克蘭之聲」,旨在為兩位因戰爭而流離失所的當代烏克蘭藝術家 Artem Volokitin 和 Maria Kulikovska 提供發聲平台。Read more -
Painting the Pain: in Conversation with Ukrainian Artists Maria Kulikovska and Artem Volokitin
March 7, 2023Ahead of the Resilience: Voices of Ukraine exhibition at Double Q Gallery, two Ukrainian artists talk about seeing the world through the prism of art...Read more -
MARIA KULIKOVSKA’S FIRST SOLO INSTITUTIONAL EXHIBITION AT FRANCISCO CAROLINUM LINZ, AUSTRIA
September 8, 2022Double Q Gallery is pleased to announce Maria Kulikovska’s solo exhibition ‘My Body is a Battlefield’ opening at Francisco Carolinum Linz, Austria on 8 September...Read more -
“254” PERFORMANCE BY UKRAINIAN ARTIST MARIA KULIKOVSKA AT NEUE NATIONALGALERIE, BERLIN, GERMANY
April 20, 2022The war and its impact are the central focus of the work by Ukrainian artist Maria Kulikovska (b. 1988). She is presenting her one-hour performance...Read more -
THE UKRAINIAN ARTISTS MAKING WORK AS ACTS OF RESISTANCE
March 28, 2022Although Russia invaded Ukraine only a month ago, it has already produced artistic responses that show both steely determination and a particular sense of desperate...Read more