I started my career as a photographer and graphic designer and quickly became visible online by participating in various online communities and collaborating with post-internet and internet-pioneering artists.
After finishing Rodchenko Art School I was invited by my professor of New Media Arts Alexei Shulgin, part of Electroboutique art collective to contribute and rethink their installation work "Stand by". Later series of photographs were on view at the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, showing CRITI-Pop, a spicy take on the new internet trends on self-centered technology and new shiny objects.
The same year I continued exploring the web by collabing with Oliver Laric, a big fan of Alexi. I was obsessed with Open Source ideas and The Yes Men, all part of the same circle of ideas, practices, and friends. Making websites to showcase my art.
I was keeping my Flickr updated w film photography, Tumblr running, and produced content for LookAtMedia Russian conglomerate and Philipp Oh's StreetPeeper as a street-style reporter from Moscow.
I was obsessed with photography and moving images, filming analog and digital, and showing my work around until about moving to Vienna in 2010 where I was told people don't teach "internet art" so I was admitted into Figurative Painting class.
I started my 8 years long discovery of traditional mediums and 3d mediums from metal, welding, wood, stone, oil painting, figurative painting, sculpture, and abstract painting to performance, music, and art theory.
There I had a major crisis of self-identity. And I had to find a way to incorporate my search for my artistic voice into my practice. I was making so-called conceptual art, but the form was always as important to me as the concept.
With my solo projects, I usually explore an idea for research, based on the chosen technology. Tech was always taking a central part of my research and practice. As I use tech to communicate and channel my ideas.
In 2013 I started curating time-based happenings. Experiments where I'd set up "rules" for the group of artists, musicians, or any creatives willing to participate. Targeting questions of power dynamics, gender, geo-political aspects, social bgs, etc.
My focus was always to create an exchange of ideas, and experiences, showcase strategies and find pain points in a collective art production process. Creating a safe space for those experiments regardless of exhibition location be it Russia, Austria, or USA. And how the problematics of the experiments' unfoldment shifts depending on location. This is pre covid, and things were really different back then.
In 2016 I curated a show, what felt like a personal milestone of 24 international artists, and pulled off production, transportation, installation, and de-installation by myself and w the help of my community. It was my dream to bring my community to the place where I was born and to connect the dots. The main focus was on the blockchain, open markets, personal strategy, and unity + human touch.
In 2017 things started changing for me, after a personal tragedy, I couldn't continue working and believing in things that were driving me prior. I could not keep up with having a safe space for myself. And I felt like I could not provide it for others.
I left academia. Left my community and took a step back. I curated a few queer shows in governmental institutions in Moscow* big focus of mine, to penetrate the state body with our queerness. But the legal pressure and risks were too high to continue.
I was focusing on fermentation and bio-based materials, essentially bacteria that can't live w/o a collective. Thoughts that I myself was consumed by.
Collecting wild-foods, fermenting them and inventing bio-based material out of fungi-sourced chitosan. I was later trying to push this idea and looking for funding to start the company or at least move the research into the labs. But that was impossible to do in Moscow.
I got invited to the Biennial in Finland to show the Wildfood research and bake some loaves of bread with it. Were starting delivery subscription service for biodynamic wines and coffee but covid hit hard.
In the spring of 2021, I heard of smart contracts and was seeking a pro to collab and make something cool. And so it happens that I've met the VP of Engineering at Compound. And we shipped on-chain generated NFT Game Ether Freakers within 2 or 3 days.
I was shocked by the capacity, speed, $, feedback, and community.
I was instantly sold. It gave me the vibes that I had back in my early internet days, tbh.
After the game, I was learning abt everything from Digital Marketing from the top Rus digital marketing agency to the backend at ethglobal hackathons lmao.
I've contributed to several startups, orgs and ecosystems, and governance programs in the space, from Arweave to Maker DAO. On product design, DAO governance and DAO exp design, user-centric design, research and marketing, biz-dev, devrel, community building, and community marketing, etc.
I'm the proudest of Tableland.xyz.
Product where I landed my first full-time startup position as a DevRel Team Lead. In the team of 6. Textile.io at the time. I've been witnessing early development stages, and helping to push and ship Tableland at EthDenver 2022, full-cycle production within 5 months. Anything and everything from partnerships, and integrations to product and marketing.
I moved to Mexico at the time. To meet w the team. But ended up staying a while.
Last year was traumatic, not gonna lie. But my community never let me sink in.
In April I became a finalist at ETHTokyo with web3 marketing aggregator using Hilbert's curve.
In May I finished Encoded Solidity Foundation Course.
During the last few months, I've been consumed by Avalanche Subnets docs.
TLRD:
I've produced, curated, mapped, and designed content, strategy, events, art, and marketing/brand marketing strategies for creative agencies, startups, indie fashion brands, art institutions, artists, and musicians, and since 2021, digital marketing agencies and web3 orgs.
Since 2021, I've switched my focus to web3, and over the last three years, I've contributed to over 15+ startups and organizations like MakerDAO, ETHGlobal, ETHDenver, BNB, ConsenSys, and Maple.
I've collaborated with VP of Engineering at Compound on designing and visualizing strategy, branding, and on-chain generated assets. Creating NFT Game Ether Freakers.
I've curated a couple of incredible artists that previously worked for Balenciaga into our physical/digital NFT Drop Aisthisi.art.
I've learned abt digital marketing and publishing from my friend and CEO at AdChampagne.com - a Boutique Digital Marketing Agency, an official partner of Tiktok in Eastern Europe. Sucking in first hand knowledge and exploring Sensor Tower, + leading publishers in web2 space.
Shipped Tableland.xyz at EthDenver within 5 months as DevRel and Team Lead @ Textile.io. Scaling community from 2k on Slack to 22k on Twitter.
Since 2021 I became an active contributor to Ethereum Community and EthDenver Community. FIL+ Governance.
Since 2008, I've been showing my photography and video works in art museums and galleries. And my work has been published in L'officiel, DAZED, Vice (Online, Rus, Austrian), Vogue, Christie's IG, and Harper's Bazaar. I've also worked with brands like MCM Worldwide, Ottolinger, Tequila Olmeca, and Adidas.
My artistic practice is heavily influenced by technology and I try to continue creating common good by teaching and mentoring youth and young artists and creatives. As well as curating irl and online.
Hello, world! I'm Ania,Technical Creative in the Web3 space.
