Sofiya Shukhova

About

I am an environmental artist based in Bali since 2023, following eight years living and working in Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia, and prior to that in Europe and Russia.

With a background in both art and wildlife conservation, I create work in response to fragile places and creatures, exploring what makes our relationship with nature so unbalanced — and how that imbalance fires back. I often work with found and reclaimed materials, such as garbage collected from Bali's shores. My artworks have been exhibited in the US, UK, Singapore, Russia and Indonesia.

These are the artist's own words, from her current exhibition text, changed only from the third person to the first. The wording still needs her nod. Everything else on this site is a placeholder.

Sofiya Shukhova sitting cross-legged on a patterned tile floor, holding a shallow ceramic bowl with a disc of green sea-worn glass in it. Behind her, large charcoal drawings of human figures lean against the wall; blue fishing net hangs from one, and another carries a red pigment mark low on the torso. Pale netting lies in her lap.
In the studio, Bali.

CV

Solo exhibitions

2021
The Asian Songbird Crisis — Timiryazev State Biology Museum, Moscow
2020
Songbird Trade — HEARTH, Art Outreach Singapore

Selected exhibitions

2019
Wildlife Artist of the Year — Mall Galleries, London
2015
First solo presentation — Riga, Latvia
—
Exhibited in the US, UK, Singapore, Russia and Indonesia — individual venues and dates to confirm

Awards

2019
Winner, Human Impact category — Wildlife Artist of the Year, David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

Grants & residencies

2019
Creature Conserve scholarship — research into the Asian songbird trade

Selected projects

—
Educational room design — Save Vietnam’s Wildlife
—
Art–conservation workshops: coral, underwater ecology, Asian songbird trade
—
Field research with Planet Indonesia, FLIGHT and TRAFFIC — Malaysia and Indonesia

Professional

Ongoing
IUCN SSC Asian Songbird Trade Specialist Group
Ongoing
Saiga Conservation Alliance — artist collaborator

Education

2014
BA Architecture — France

Based

2023 –
Bali, Indonesia
2015 – 2023
Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia
before
Europe and Russia