Anastasia Skabelkina - new media artist, independent curator.
Founder and curator of new media art festival "METAXIS" & MR exhibition "Expansion of Reality", new media art critic.
Anastasia Skabelkina, through digital art, shows the viewer that the physical reality can be changeable and dual. She conveys this idea through an aesthetic she calls futuristic, using terms like abstract futurism and digital mysticism.
These terms manifest in her works as a constant fluidity of imagery. The ability to alter perception through light, and the notion that our ingrained perception is not the sole norm but can be easily transformed through technology. In this regard, digital technologies showcase the potential of playing with reality. Here, the solid can become fluid, and the stable can become dynamic. Anastasia utilizes the inherent quality of digital art's transformation and mutation as a visual technique aimed at expanding our worldview.
Expanding one's worldview has the paramount importance to Anastasia, as it provides an opportunity to evoke our best qualities and transform fear and aggression into love and harmony. In the artist's view, there is more within us than we can express while we are confined by our familiar world or everyday circumstances.
Art serves as the trigger with which we can interact to expand our potential for self-expression and our finest qualities. Essentially, it is the therapeutic power of art that, in Anastasia's perspective, can be maximized through digital environments that enable interactive engagement.
The action prompted by a digital art installation encourages the viewer to discover new possibilities within themselves and to realize the interconnectedness of all people, the ability to transit into the digital space and become a part of the artwork. Thus, the sublime becomes an integral part of the individual.
Duality technique in art and the opportunity to interact with the environment are the mechanics that help the viewer come to themselves through manifestation. Anastasia feels the importance of these practices through her own experience. For many years, the artist faced various environments where the individual's identity was suppressed, hindering its expression and revelation.
The attempt to break free from such an environment led to the idea of shaping a space in art where the artwork visually and through human participation, negates the past experience of certain perception. On the other side, it offers an engagement in something new, where the individual has a chance to feel their own uniqueness. So, the artist seeks to create the world of the future, where new technologies are not a threat but a guide to self-discovery and social harmony.
CV
EXHIBITIONS / LIVE PERFORMANCES
2023 immersive art installation "Individual Diversity (I.D)" exhibition "Technology and Humanity Canvas" Kanvas gallery, Dubai
2023 monumental installation "Endless Now" Zaryadye park, Moscow
2022 AR sculpture "Aeonic" exhibition "Digital Mechanics". Sergei Kuryokhin`s Center of Contemporary Art, SPb
2022 interactive installation "Balance of Chaos" exhibition "Expansion of Reality". M'ARS, Moscow
2021 light sculpture "Eden Shard" exhibition "Expansion of Reality". Laboratory PromTechDesign, SPb
2021 light installation "Avangard" new media art festival "Wonder of Light". Peter-Pavel's Fortress, SPb
2020 audiovisual performance festival "METAXIS". Lumiere Hall, SPb
2020 installation "Universe of Phosphene" exhibition "Reset". M'ARS, Moscow
2019 full-dome audiovisual performance "Temple of Phosphene" festival "Episode". Planetarium №1, SPb
2019 3D mapping "Temple of Phosphene" festival "The night of light". Gatchina
2019 full-dome art show "Ballet in the Planetarium" Saint-Petersburg planetarium.
2018 3D mapping "Opus111" festival "The night of light". Gatchina
2018 interactive installation "Constancy of Variability" festival "METAXIS". Kvadrat, SPb
2017 interactive installation "To be continued" festival "Science fest". Lumyer Hall, SPb
CURATION
2022 23.04 - 16.11 curator of MR exhibition "Expansion of Reality" (M'ARS, Moscow)
2022 14.05 - 21.05 curator of new media art festival "METAXIS - Earth" (Planetarium 1, SPb, Nizhniy Novgorod, Yerevan)
2021 29.11 - 24.12 curator of MR exhibition "Expansion of Reality" (Laboratory PromTechDesign, SPb)
2021 14.04 curator of new media art festival "METAXIS - Space" (Planetarium 1, SPb)
2020 10.10 curator of media happening "METAXIS" (Lumiere Hall, SPb)
2020 10.10 curator of Techno Artists Meetup (Lumiere Hall, SPb)
2020 curator of digital art installations for the exhibition "Reset" (M'ARS, Moscow)
2019 09.10 curator of new media art festival "METAXIS - art gathering". (SPb)
2018 01.02 curator of new media art festival "METAXIS". (Kvadrat, SPb)
WORK EXPERIENCE
Since 2023 founder and curator of MR bureau "Expansion of Reality"
Since 2021 founder and curator of MR exhibition "Expansion of Reality"
Since 2018 founder and curator of new media art festival METAXIS
2020 - 2022 "New media art" course author, curator and teacher (Sky University, SPb)
2016 - 2022 founder, curator and teacher of new media art lab OPUS111
2015 - 2016 PR in academy of audiovisual arts "Mediacultura" (SPb)
EDUCATION
2013 - 2015 master of arts. St. Petersburg state University, Faculty of liberal arts and Sciences.
2007 - 2012 specialist in PR. Ural Federal University. Faculty of journalism.