Oksana Shatalova

Oksana Shatalova (born 1972, Rudny, Kazakhstan ) is a visual artist, art critic, writer and curator from Kazakhstan.

Shatalova is known for her photographic, video, and installation work which provides feminist perspectives around the Soviet legacy and life in Central Asia.

Selected exhibitions As an artist, Shatalova's artworks often explores themes on individual experiences of the Soviet past, local mythology and folk customs, body politics and feminism, and critique of social and economic inequalities. Shatalova has exhibited worldwide in cities like Cologne, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Naples, among others. For example, in the exhibition "East of Nowhere" (2009) held at Foundation 107, Turin, Shatalova showcased a series of photographic work titled Red Flag (2008), which sees herself in a red dress holding a red flag filled with white dots.

In the 2nd Bishkek International Exhibition "In the Shadow of 'Heroes'", Shatalova and Girik presented a series of photographic works Ofelia. Gestures., showing a woman making iconic gestures of different faiths such as Buddhist and Hindu Moudrs, and that of Christian saints.

She also participated in festivals such as the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), the 2nd Moscow Biennale (2007), the 1st Annual Women's International Video Festival (2006) in Tucson, Cologne Online Film Festival (2006), the 2006 Cabbagetown Short Film & Video Festival in Toronto, LA Freewaves' 10th Biennial Festival of New Media Arts Too Much Freedom? in Los Angeles (2006), SWGC Art Gallery Contemporary Film & Video Festival in Newfoundland and Labrador (2006), VAD International Festival of Video and Digital Arts of Girona (2005).

Other exhibitions she participated in include "Intervals and Borders" (2008) in Ohio, "Non-Eroticism" (2007) in Almaty, "Selfportrait - a show for Bethlehem" (2006) in Bethlehem, and "Capturing Utopia" (2005) in Santa Fe. Their research interests include the cultural history and theory, contemporary philosophy, cultural politics, gender and queer theories. They are also the authors of Queer-communism as Ethics, a book exploring the radical imagination of a queer future alongside the legacy of Soviet communism, which was published in 2016 by Free Marxist Press. Their work was informed by the principles of Soviet avant-garde art and activism that seek to create timely response to contemporary issues.

From 1997 to 2001, Shatalova issued and edited the literary and art magazine Pigmalion.

As the co-curators of the Central Asian Pavilion in the Venice Biennale in 2011, they co-wrote the catalogue Lingua Franca: Central Asia Pavilion, which discusses the exhibition project that set out to "test art for universality", the ability to act as a kind of lingua franca, through the works of artists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Shatalova is also the co-author of Muzykstan. Media Generation of Contemporary Artists From Central Asia together with Sorokina Yuliya, Джапаров Улан, and Misiano Viktor. The book was published in 2007 on the occasion of Central Asia's participation in the 52nd Venice Biennale. Their project was based on the local music leitmotiv which served as a reflection of the social and cultural background of Central Asia.

She was also a co-author of "New nomads" in In the Shadow of 'Heroes': 2nd Bishkek International Exhibition of Contemporary Art with Alia Girik.