Nikolay Smirnov

Nikolay Smirnov (b. 1982, Moscow, Russia) is a graduate of Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia, and the School of Contemporary Art Free Workshops by MMOMA.

Nikolay is an artist, geog­ra­pher, curator, and researcher of spa­tial prac­tices, and rep­re­sen­ta­tions of space and place across art, science, museum traditions and everyday life.

His analyses and executes of complex narratives in the form of text, exhibition dispositive, and films.

Nikolay Smirnov has been nominated for the Innovation Prize twice – together with Kirill Svetlyakov and Dmitry Zamyatin (2016, 2019). Smirnov has been the recipient of the Frame Curatorial Research Fellowship (Finland, 2020) and the Pernod Ricard Fellowship (France, 2018). He has participated in the CMBB Para Site International Art Residency (Hong Kong, 2019) and Pernod Ricard residency at Villa Vassilieff (Paris, 2017–2018).

Smirnov's research papers were published by e-flux journal, Moscow Art Magazine, Colta.ru, Aroundart, Centre for Experimental Museology, Urban Studies and Practices.

Nikolay co-curated the Metageography and Permafrost pro­jects (the Arctic Biennale, Yakutsk, 2016), and participated in the Main Projects of the 5th Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art (2019, curated by Xiaoyu Weng) and the 2nd Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA2, 2020, curated by Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel)

As part of the Golubitskoe Art Foundation residency programme, he is working on a research paper on the 'geo-utopian imagination of Taman and local research for the Mechanics of the Epidemic project, dedicated to the multi-factor processes of the spread of the epidemic (both human and non-human, mental, geopolitical, etc.)