Marina Leonteva (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 2025, she received
refugee status in France for her anti-war stance.
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.
There are moments of pure beauty I want to absorb completely — when
the nostrils flare and every pore opens to take in a fragment of the
surrounding atmosphere. These moments last only seconds, long for such
a feeling. I collect them in memory, and they inevitably shape what I
paint: the details, scenes, and landscapes that have left an imprint.
In these moments I feel most nakedly myself.
I find in plants and fungi something I needed: the knowledge of how to grow through resistance, how to push through dense structure, how to carry hope. One thread of my practice is empathy across species — I try to inhabit the perspective of a plant or a mushroom, to feel what they might call desire or longing, and translate that through colour and composition. Both methods are improvisational, layered, slow — accumulations rather than statements.
I work in tempera (an ancient medium that resists and rewards patience), pastel, and hand-tufted textile. In many works, the first layer is calligraphy — a word written as mantra, beneath which impressions, meanings, and emotions accumulate.
Underneath all of it is a question: what does it mean to move forward — as a person, as a species? I am drawn to satyagraha and the naive but peaceful ideas of Russian Cosmism: that humanity might orient itself toward something genuinely expansive. My work is an argument for New Sincerity — the serious treatment of beauty, feeling, and ordinary human experience, in a world saturated with irony.
I find in plants and fungi something I needed: the knowledge of how to grow through resistance, how to push through dense structure, how to carry hope. One thread of my practice is empathy across species — I try to inhabit the perspective of a plant or a mushroom, to feel what they might call desire or longing, and translate that through colour and composition. Both methods are improvisational, layered, slow — accumulations rather than statements.
I work in tempera (an ancient medium that resists and rewards patience), pastel, and hand-tufted textile. In many works, the first layer is calligraphy — a word written as mantra, beneath which impressions, meanings, and emotions accumulate.
Underneath all of it is a question: what does it mean to move forward — as a person, as a species? I am drawn to satyagraha and the naive but peaceful ideas of Russian Cosmism: that humanity might orient itself toward something genuinely expansive. My work is an argument for New Sincerity — the serious treatment of beauty, feeling, and ordinary human experience, in a world saturated with irony.
Solo exhibitions
2024
all is alive II, Chaduna, Tbilisi, Georgia
2023
all is alive, Artist’s studio, Tbilisi, Georgia
2016
For Nobody, solo show, off-site, 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
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, off-site, 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
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