Marina Leontieva (born 1991, Khabarovsk, Russia) is a contemporary
artist who lives and works in Brittany, France. She graduated from the
Krasnoyarsk State Art Institute in 2015. In 2024, she moved to France,
and in 2025, she was granted refugee status due to her political
views.
The artist has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Georgia, Russia, Germany, Italy, as well as in international art residencies. In her practice, she explores the fluid movement of life, the interconnection between the living and the dead, and resilience to external circumstances. She works with fabrics, yarn, and tempera paints, attaching particular importance to the role of color and its symbolism.
The artist has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Georgia, Russia, Germany, Italy, as well as in international art residencies. In her practice, she explores the fluid movement of life, the interconnection between the living and the dead, and resilience to external circumstances. She works with fabrics, yarn, and tempera paints, attaching particular importance to the role of color and its symbolism.
Contact
I grew up in the criminal 1990s in a city lost in the wild and harsh
nature of Siberia. Defense was survival. I had to grow spines early.
A way to escape a reality where an outdated and ignorant language of
power traditionally prevailed, was creativity. Along with the values
of freedom and honesty, it became the foundation of what I now call
New Sincerity. In my practice, I rethink oppressive traditions, using
traditional handicrafts and an ancient medium — tempera — as symbols.
I work with tempera and textiles like dead Siberian soil, where
something new will grow regardless. It breaks through the dense
structure of hand-made fabrics and the rigid, ossified tempera despite
the textures’ resistance to change, disruption, or nontraditional use.
The new carries vitality, and through resistance, new forms emerge.
Resistance and the vitality of the new reflect my approach to life and my call, expressed through Satyagraha — nonviolent resistance, literally “holding onto truth.” While living in Russia, I criticized dictatorship and the collaborationist nature of cultural institutions, and prefer an oppositional stance, hermity, non-cooperation, and an exhibition in an abandoned stairwell (2016) over museums and galleries. This meant no support and negligible chances of leaving a totalitarian state. But more importantly, it meant my personal “holding onto truth.” In 2019, I left Russia and continued my practice in Georgia.
The Caucasus revealed the theme of vitality, as one could literally observe how city and flora fight there every day. The plant world became my key metaphor of identity and struggle. Plants have learned to use every element, and the resilience of their seeds inspires and sustains hope. In recent years, I have been depicting the world “through the eyes” of plants or fungi to understand other perspectives, continuing the ideas of Robert Anton Wilson in "Quantum Psychology" about the necessity of agnosticism and dismantling one’s own reality tunnels.
The loss of home, wars, and other crises of our time push my research beyond the planet, and romantic images of a warm home in cold space increasingly appear in my work, sometimes as pastel textures like cosmic dust, or as color combinations reminiscent of the northern lights. I am drawn to the naive and bold ideas of Timothy Leary ("The Game of Life", on individual development) and Russian Cosmism (Anton Vidokle, Oksana Timofeeva, on collective development). The vision of the cosmos as home became even more personal after my emigration to France in 2024 and obtaining refugee status.
As David Foster Wallace urged, we must again “treat old untrendy human troubles” in a world of learned cynicism and desperate consumption. Reality has been devalued and cruelly mocked by empty entertainment, (post-) irony, and the internet as a set of simulacra and simulations. In my work, I seek a way out of this noise, a path toward truth and focus.
Resistance and the vitality of the new reflect my approach to life and my call, expressed through Satyagraha — nonviolent resistance, literally “holding onto truth.” While living in Russia, I criticized dictatorship and the collaborationist nature of cultural institutions, and prefer an oppositional stance, hermity, non-cooperation, and an exhibition in an abandoned stairwell (2016) over museums and galleries. This meant no support and negligible chances of leaving a totalitarian state. But more importantly, it meant my personal “holding onto truth.” In 2019, I left Russia and continued my practice in Georgia.
The Caucasus revealed the theme of vitality, as one could literally observe how city and flora fight there every day. The plant world became my key metaphor of identity and struggle. Plants have learned to use every element, and the resilience of their seeds inspires and sustains hope. In recent years, I have been depicting the world “through the eyes” of plants or fungi to understand other perspectives, continuing the ideas of Robert Anton Wilson in "Quantum Psychology" about the necessity of agnosticism and dismantling one’s own reality tunnels.
The loss of home, wars, and other crises of our time push my research beyond the planet, and romantic images of a warm home in cold space increasingly appear in my work, sometimes as pastel textures like cosmic dust, or as color combinations reminiscent of the northern lights. I am drawn to the naive and bold ideas of Timothy Leary ("The Game of Life", on individual development) and Russian Cosmism (Anton Vidokle, Oksana Timofeeva, on collective development). The vision of the cosmos as home became even more personal after my emigration to France in 2024 and obtaining refugee status.
As David Foster Wallace urged, we must again “treat old untrendy human troubles” in a world of learned cynicism and desperate consumption. Reality has been devalued and cruelly mocked by empty entertainment, (post-) irony, and the internet as a set of simulacra and simulations. In my work, I seek a way out of this noise, a path toward truth and focus.
Solo exhibitions
2024
all is alive II, Chaduna, Tbilisi, Georgia
2023
all is alive, Artist’s studio, Tbilisi, Georgia
2016
For Nobody, solo show in a 9-floor non-functional porch, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Group exhibitions
2019
Final Group Show at the end of the Alexander James Hamilton Residency, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
2015
Passagio dell’Inferno, Toscana, Italy
2012
Secret Keeper (Russian-German Art Project KRASDAM) Potsdam, Germany
Awards & grants
2014
Mikhail Prokhorov Fund’s Grant Academic Mobility, Prague School of Design
Artistic residencies
2019
Alexander James Hamilton Residency Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Education
2020–2021
Certificate in Design Art Direction
Skvot, Online School, Ukraine
2011–2015
Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design
Krasnoyarsk State Art Institute, Siberia
2024
all is alive II, Chaduna, Tbilisi, Georgia
2023
all is alive, Artist’s studio, Tbilisi, Georgia
2016
For Nobody, solo show in a 9-floor non-functional porch, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Group exhibitions
2019
Final Group Show at the end of the Alexander James Hamilton Residency, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
2015
Passagio dell’Inferno, Toscana, Italy
2012
Secret Keeper (Russian-German Art Project KRASDAM) Potsdam, Germany
Awards & grants
2014
Mikhail Prokhorov Fund’s Grant Academic Mobility, Prague School of Design
Artistic residencies
2019
Alexander James Hamilton Residency Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Education
2020–2021
Certificate in Design Art Direction
Skvot, Online School, Ukraine
2011–2015
Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design
Krasnoyarsk State Art Institute, Siberia