Olya Kroytor – How Do We Want To Live

Description

Description

Presented by: Nadia Kotova Gallery

Listen to the audio description of this artwork:

A few years ago, the artist created beautiful and sophisticated serigraphs that play on similar ambiguities. The enunciation—the images and phrases—is framed by a refined composition of geometrical forms and precise juxtaposition of colors that guide the viewer’s interpretation. These silkscreens were part of the series of collages titled “Necessary Condition,” which has its roots in the artist’s childhood fascination with science fiction in literature and cinema. However, there is an intriguing ambiguity as the stories here are not fictional. The artist used real documents from the past, including quotes from the 1960s newspapers “Nedelia” (translated as “The Week”) and “Za rubezhom” (translated as “Abroad” or “Overseas”).

art print - not available for sale

Olya Kroytor
(b. 1986, Moscow)
Living between Iceland and Austria
Olya is a contemporary Russian artist known for her multidisciplinary practice encompassing performance, installation, collage, and video. A graduate of the Moscow State Pedagogical University and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA Moscow), Kroytor emerged as a significant voice in Russian conceptual and performative art in the 2010s.

Her work explores themes of presence, vulnerability, control, and the body as both subject and medium. Often placing herself in physically and psychologically intense situations—such as standing motionless atop a narrow pole for hours—she blurs the line between endurance and metaphor, between personal gesture and societal critique.

Kroytor frequently uses minimal yet symbolically charged elements: comic book fragments, children’s blocks, Soviet newspaper clippings, and geometric forms. These materials reflect on collective memory, language, and the tension between order and chaos. Her visual language merges existential inquiry with subtle irony, often evoking a sense of quiet resistance.

A recipient of the Kandinsky Prize in 2015 (Best Young Artist), Kroytor has exhibited widely in Russia and abroad, including at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Garage Museum, and international biennials. Her performances and installations are marked by restraint and conceptual clarity, yet they often leave viewers with lingering emotional resonance.

She currently lives and works in Europe, continuing to examine the limits of the visible and the audible, the private and the political.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olyakroytor/

Website: https://en.syntaxgallery.com/kroytor

Nadya Kotova Gallery

Nadya Kotova Gallery operates on the primary market and represents living international contemporary artists. The gallery focuses on art, which is innovative at its origin and creates a strong visual and cognitive impact. The exhibition program contains painting, a distinctive combination of new media art, video- and installation-based work, drawing and photography. The mission of the gallery is to stimulate intercultural dialogue and to create a bridge between international artists, local Belgian and global audience and collectors. Represented emerging and mid-career artists are supported by the gallery through participation in the major contemporary art fairs: Art London, Art Paris. Located in the gallery district at the south of Antwerp, it enjoys the direct proximity of Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp,FOMU and Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.

Website: http://www.nkgallery.be/