Olga Chernysheva (born 1962 in Moscow, Russia) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Moscow. Her work spans film, photography, drawing and object-based mediums, where she draws on quotidian moments and marginal spaces from everyday life as a way of exploring the increasing fragmentation of master narratives in contemporary Russian culture.
Olga Chernysheva, who grew up in the Soviet Union, finds meaning in the mundane as a writer, videographer, painter, and street photographer. Each of her series provides multiple riffs on a single theme, and Chernysheva possesses an uncanny eye for the cultural significance of small moments. Originally trained as an animator, Chernysheva now documents—through her various mediums—the shoppers and security guards, subway buskers and homeless people who live in her native Moscow. “Russia, for me, is a very fruitful interesting place to live,” she has said, “because everything at any moment is ready to be turned into a poetical image.”
She holds a BA from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, Moscow and she finished a residency at the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally, including Museum of Modern Art, New York; 56th Venice Biennale, Venice; Lunds Konsthall, Sweden; Moscow Biennale for Contemporary Art; Biennale of Museum Folkwang, Essen; Kunsthalle Hamburg; Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Her works are held in major collections worldwide, including Museum of Modern Art, New York; Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris; Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University; Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany; The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo; NBK, Berlin, Germany; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Moscow Museum of Modern Art.
