Leni Smoragdova

Leni Smoragdova is a multimedia artist and the creator of the Transaction Art Universe. Using a wide range of forms and mediums, she transforms the transaction—a basic unit of socio-economic exchange and control—into an artistic medium and a protocol for collective action.

Her practice is developed under the collective identity {Transaction} in collaboration with anonymous participants (Hidden Faces), rendering authorship intentionally unstable and difficult to verify.

Born in Smolensk in 1984, she currently lives and works in Tbilisi.

2022 - Bang Bang Education, Illustrators / Artist
2012 - Central Saint Martins, Fine Art
2007 - Ural Federal University, The Sociology Teacher

Artsper, curators' choice on Singulart, Bidgala, SaatchiArt, Artmajeur.

Solo Exhibitions

From 2013 till 2017 - Non stop performance during 4 years. “Inglourious Basterds: heated bus stops”". Yekaterinburg, Russia. More than 10.000 people took part in it.

2013, the first sanctions were introduced in the country and essential goods disappeared from stores. An economic crisis set in. In the Urals, the temperature drops to minus 40 degrees in winter. Buses run infrequently.
December 2013, An unknown young woman froze and lost consciousness while waiting for bus, Passersby found her and called an ambulance.

2013 - “Dolmens”
2014 - "How I decided to undress everyone: naked people waiting buses". 
2015 - “Hero of the city “The bus stops”.
2016 - “Castration”.
2017 - “Circus”. Leni Smoragdova - The candidate for the governor of Sverdlovsk region, Russia.

Inglorious bastards "play out" and disappear, as suddenly as they appeared. Creating a complete illusion of deception.


Group Exhibitions
2024, 3rd - 30th Oct - "The Sight Unseen Exhibition", The Glasgow Gallery of Photography CIC, Glasgow, Scotland.
2022 - "Auto Focus", LoosenArt Gallery, Millepiani, Rome 2019, Nov - Women in Photo
2019, 3-6 Oct - The Other Art Fair, London
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