Katja Novitskova (born 1984 in
Tallinn, Estonia
Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...
) is an Estonian installation artist. She lives and works in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. Her work focuses on issues of technology, evolutionary processes, digital imagery and corporate aesthetics. Novitskova is interested in investigating how, "media actively redefines the world and culture, and everything" related to art, nature and commerce.
Education
Novitskova holds degrees in Semiotics and Cultural Studies as well as a specialization in Media Arts from the
University of Tartu
The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...
, Estonia. She also completed a Masters of Science in Digital Media,
University of Lübeck
The University of Lübeck is a research university in Lübeck, Northern Germany which focuses almost entirely on medicine and sciences with applications in medicine. In 2006, 2009 and 2016, the University of Lübeck was ranked No. 1 in medicine am ...
, Germany in addition to studying at the Graphic Design department at the Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam. Further funding and research for her artistic practice has been supported by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the residency programme for visual artists at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten and the Mondriaan Fund.
Work
Novitskova has shown at SALTS, Basel, Bard Centre for Curatorial Studies with Timur Si-Qin, M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium and at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing.
Key themes in her practice have evolved from an interest in
post-internet art practices, technology and the biological evolution within the current geological era (the
Anthropocene
The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change.
, neither the International Commissi ...
). A re-occurring theme in her works are images of animals sourced online, which appear larger than life in her installations and are digitally printed onto aluminium. These works belong specifically to a series of images titled ''Approximation.''
For her first solo exhibition ''Macro Expansion'' she reassembled images from online search engines by filtering them into recombinations influenced by advertisement and corporate branding. By lifting images from their "natural" habitat she wished to demonstrate the evolutionary processes of technological advancement, economic expansion and positivistic adaptations to flora, fauna and humankind.
Novitskova was also a contributor to
Digital Life Design
Digital Life Design (DLD) is a global conference network, organized by Munich-based DLD Media, a company of Hubert Burda Media.
In 2005, Stephanie Czerny founded DLD as an annual conference scheme. Its main purpose is to connect business, creati ...
Women14 in Munich, an exhibition moderated by the art curator
Hans-Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...
where she presented "Patterns of Activation". Regarding her text "Post Internet Survival Guide", Novitskova has stated that, "The notion of a survival guide arises as an answer to a basic human need to cope with increasing complexity. In the face of death, personal attachment and confusion, one has to feel, interpret and index this ocean of signs in order to survive.”
In December 2013, Novitskova participated in TEDxVaduz, organized by the artists Simon Denny and Daniel Keller at the
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein ( English: ''Liechtenstein Museum of Fine Arts'') is the state museum of modern and contemporary art in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. The building by the Swiss architects Meinrad Morger, Heinrich Degelo and Christian Kere ...
. The collaborative project was an independently organized and licensed
TED
TED may refer to:
Economics and finance
* TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar
Education
* ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association
** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey
** Transvaal Education Depa ...
event which aimed to implicitly critique the format of branding and the cultural implications of TED's global economies. Invited artist created a stage design as well as objects and images which were exhibited as part of a series of presentations and talks. Novitskova contributed with an installation and a talk titled "Attention, Economies and Art."
In 2019, Novitskova was shortlisted for the Preis der Nationalgalerie, a nomination accompanied by an exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin.
Venice Biennale
Pavilion of Estonia presented "If Only You Could See What I’ve Seen with Your Eyes" by Katja Novitskova at the
Estonian pavilion at the 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (13.05 – 26.11.2017). The exhibition was curated by Kati Ilves. "If Only You Could See What I’ve Seen with Your Eyes" addressed the relationship between the domain of seeing, big data-driven industries, and ecology in times of biotic crisis.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Novitskova, Katja
1984 births
Living people
21st-century Estonian women artists
University of Tartu alumni
Artists from Tallinn
Estonian people of Russian descent