Bio

Lesia Maruschak is an artist working across photography, performance, and the staging of ambitious installations within the landscape. Her practice is underpinned by rigorous research examining the land, histories of colonization, geopolitics, and exile. She has exhibited at 65 museums, galleries and art spaces worldwide. The National Holodomor Genocide Museum, Kyiv named her mobile memorial Project MARIA as the most important exhibition on the Soviet Ukraine famine-genocide. Maruschak’s monograph Maria won the Kyiv International Book Festival Grand Prix Award and Experimental Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2019 Rencontres de Arles Book Award and the Athens Photography Festival Book Award.

Maruschak’s highly coveted limited edition art books are held in numerous collections including the National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, Thomas Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Boston Athenaeum, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University, Green Library-Special Collections at Stanford, Rare Books & Special Collections at the Library of Congress, and Butler Library-Special Collections at Columbia University.

Maruschak is the founder of the MENEZVUT and VYDNO Collectives and her work is supported by the Canada Council of the Arts, the Ukrainian World Congress, the Canada First World War Internment Recognition Endowment Council and numerous private foundations. Maruschak is the recipient of the General of Canada Silver Medal Award and Caring Canadian Award, Ukrainian Canadian Congress Saskatchewan National Builder’s Award, and the Ottawa Woman of Inspiration Award. She is currently a Research Affiliate at the University of Saskatchewan, Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage. Lesia Maruschak (b. 1961) currently lives/works between Ottawa, ON, and Alvena, SK. She graduated University of Saskatchewan (MA), University of Ottawa (MBA) and completed fine art studies in the United States and Romania

BOARDS & FOUNDATIONS
Affiliate Researcher, Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage, University of Saskatchewan
Founder, MENEZVUT Collective
Founder, VYDNO Collective
Management Committee, Terra Ercolano Corporation
Founder, BYZANTIUM
Member, Fine Press Book Association

MONOGRAPHS
2024 Transfiguration, Limited-Edition Folio, Ottawa, Canada
2023   This Land Is My Land, Limited-Edition Commercial Publication, (forthcoming)
2022   This Land, Self-Published Artists’ Book, Ottawa, Canada
2019   Transfiguration, Self-Published Artists’ Book; Rockport, Maine, United States
2019 Maria, REDZET Publishing, Kyiv, Ukraine
2017   KRAÏNA: My Canada, Self-Published, Ottawa, Canada
2016   WOMAN, Self-Published Artists’ Book, Ottawa, Canada

FILMS
2023   Poems of Our Children, Short film, Creative Director, Lesia Maruschak; Director, DOP, Editor, George Hupka, (forthcoming)
2023 Poems of Our Children, Premiere Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum, Lviv, Ukraine
2020   Animatas No.1, Animatas No.2, Two short films, Creative Director, Lesia Maruschak; Director, DOP, Editor, George Hupka
2020 Animatas No.1, Animatas No.2, Premiere Kyiv National Holodomor-Genocide Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine
Showing, Lviv Museum of History, Lviv, Ukraine, 2020
Cindy Rucker Gallery, New York, USA, 2022
Henryk Siemiradzki Art Gallery, Karazin University, Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2022
2020   Oh, Canada! Oh, Canada! Short film, Director, Lesia Maruschak; Producer, Editor, George Hupka
Premiere Galeria Cadaques, Cadaques, Spain, 2020
Showing, Museu Nogueira da Silva, Braga, Spain, 2021
2019   The Diggers - a memory of making, Short film, Creative Director, Lesia Maruschak; Director, DOP, Editor, George Hupka
Nominated Best Short Film, Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards, Saskatoon, Canada, 2019
Premiere Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards, Saskatoon, Canada, 2019

RESIDENCIES
2025 Book Artist in Residence, Library of Congress, Washington. USA
2024 Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, GET LIT! Language, Image and Text Residency. Banff, CA
2021 Artist in Residence, Pouch Cove Foundation. Pouch Cove, CA
2018 Book Artist in Residence, Maine Media Workshops and College. Rockport, USA

GRANTS
2024 Canada Council of the Arts, Strategic Funds & Initiatives Grant, VYDNO Collective
2024 Canada Council of the Arts, Research to Creation Grant, VYDNO Collective
2023 Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Abroad
2022 Canada Council for the Arts, Digital Now Grant
2020  Franko Foundation Grant  
2020 Wasylyk Foundation Grant  
2019 Ukrainian World Congress Project MARIA Ukraine Tour Grant Shevchenko Foundation Grant
2019 Endowment Council of Canada’s First World War Internment Recognition
2019 Endowment Council of Canada’s First World War Internment Recognition
2017 Ukrainian Credit Union Grant
2017 Ukrainian National Federation
2017 Foreign Affairs Canada
2017 Shevchenko Foundation

AWARDS
2024 Honorable Mention, Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Barcelona, ES
2023 Der Greif, The Meanwhile., curators David Campany, Taous Dahmani
2023 Project MARIA, Honorable Mention, 20th Julia Margaret Cameron Award.
2022 Format Photography Festival Director’s Review Award Derby, UK
2021 Shortlist Encontros da Imagem - International Photography and Visual Arts Festival, Braga, Portugal
2021 16TH JULIA MARGARET CAMERON AWARD, Winner Segregation and Human Rights
2020 Special Award, InCadaques Foto Festival, Cadaques, Spain
2020 National Builder Award, Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Saskatchewan, Canada
2020 Woman of Inspiration, Ottawa, Canada
2019 Project MARIA, Winner Landskrona Foto, Landskrona, Sweden
2019 Artist in Residence, Ottawa School of Art, Ottawa, Canada
2019 Project MARIA Shortlisted Hariban Award. Tokyo, Japan
2019 Shortlisted Prix du Livres, Rencontres d’Arles. Arles, France
2019 Winner Experimental Book Award Category, Kyiv Arsenal International Book Festival. Kyiv, Ukraine
2019 Recipient Grand Prix: Best Book Award, Kyiv Arsenal International Book Festival. Kyiv, Ukraine
2019 Shortlisted Athens Photography Book Festival. Athens, Greece
2019 Project MARIA Recipient Director’s Choice Award, CENTER Review Santa Fe. Santa Fe, United States
2018 Recipient Silver Medal Tokyo International Photo Awards. Tokyo, Japan
2018 Project MARIA Winner 12th Pollux Award Human Rights and Segregation
2018 Winner Fotofilmic Top 30. Vancouver, Canada
2018 Finalist Critical Mass International Photography Competition. Portland, United States
2018 Shortlist Getxophoto Post Conflict Reframing A Dialogue
2016 Agora Gallery Fine Art Competition Prize, New York, United States
2014 Governor General of Canada’s Caring Canadian Award, Ottawa, Canada 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023. Maruschak Retrospective, Library of Congress, Washington
2023 Project Maria, Goethe Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
2023 Project MARIA, Museum of Boykivshzhyna, Sambir, Ukraine
2023 4°3 a ritual dance, Alvena, Canada
2022   Project MARIA, Vinnytsia History Museum, Vinnytsia, Ukraine
2022 Project MARIA, Henryk Siemiradzki Art Gallery, Karazin University, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2021   Project MARIA, Lviv Museum of History, Lviv, Ukraine
2021 This Land Is My Land, Museu Nogueira da Silva, Braga, Spain
2020 Project MARIA, National Holodomor-Genocide Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine
2020   This Land Is My Land, Galeria Cadaques, Cadaques, Spain
2020 Project MARIA, Embassy of Ukraine in the Kingdom of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden
2020 Project MARIA, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Boone, United States
2019   Project MARIA, Objectif FEMMES Exposition, Paris
2018   WALKING, Maine Media Art Gallery, Rockport Maine 
2018 Project MARIA, Musée Ukraina Museum, Saskatoon, Canada
2017   KRAÏNA: I am the land, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2017 KRAÏNA: I am the land, Kyiv, Ukraine
2017 KRAÏNA: I am the land, Odessa, Ukraine
2017 KRAÏNA: I am the land, Lviv, Ukraine
2017 KRAÏNA: I am the land, Ottawa Archives Art Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
2017 KRAÏNA: I am the land, CONTACT Scotiabank Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada
2016   BELONGING: somewhere/nowhere, Art-Zavod Platforma, Kyiv, Ukraine

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022-2023 `Indésirables. From bombardment to the camp. Paths of exile’, San Telmo Museum, San Sebastian, Spain
2022   Praxis Gallery, International Juried Exhibition, St. Paul, United States
2022 this is not an ideal time, Cindy Rucker Gallery, New York, United States
2021   Copenhagen Censored Photography Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
2021 Photo ISRAEL, International Photography Festival, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2021 Barcu Photography Festival, Bogotá, Colombia
2021 London Street Photography Festival, London, United Kingdom
2021 Landskrona FotoFestival: THE ARCHITECTURE OF MEMORY, Landskrona, Sweden
2021 7th Singapore International Photography Festival, Singapore
2020   GEXTOPHOTO, Back to the streets, Gexto, Spain
2020 Unveiling Public Art Acquisitions, Ottawa, Canada
2020 Fotofilmic International Exhibition, Seoul, Korea
2020 PhotoDays, Odessa, Ukraine.
2020 Nave Intervencion, Mérida Yucatan, Mexico
2020 Review Santa Fe Winners Exhibition, Picture Gallery, Bloomington, United States
2019   Marie de 9-ieme, Femme Objectif, Paris, France
2019 Médiathèque E. Rostand, Paris, France
2019 The PhotoGallery, Halmstad, Sweden
2019 12th Pollux Awards Collective Exhibition, Barcelona, Spain
2019 12th Julia M. Cameron Exhibition, Barcelona, Spain
2019 Gexto Photofestival, Gexto, Spain
2019 Fotofilmic International Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada
2019 Fotofilmic International Exhibition, Los Angeles, United States
2018   Post Conflict: Reframing A Dialogue, Gexto FotoFestival, Getxo, Spain
2018 A Family of No Man, Cosmos Arles, Arles, France
2018 Patricia Conde Galeria, Mexico City, Mexico    
2018 5th Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography, Barcelona, Spain
2018 Long Shot, Photographic Centre Northwest, Seattle, United States            
2018 Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, United Kingdom        
2018 Wolverhampton Archive Center, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom 
2018 Dudley Archive Centre, Dudley, United Kingdom
2018 Light House Media Centre, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom          
2018 Studio Sixty-Six Gallery, Ottawa, Canada         
2018 Houston Photography Festival, Houston, United States
2017   DAB Gallery, Ventura, California  
2017 LENSCULTURE Magnum Photography Awards Competition Gallery          
2017 Santa Fe Photo Festival, REVIEW 100, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2017 Censored Exhibition, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
2017 Linus Gallery, Quiet Long Beach, California
2017 Dab Art Gallery, Ventura California
2016   WOMAN, Phoenix Art Museum, Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center for Creative Photography, Phoenix, United States 
2016 Agora Fine Art Gallery, New York, United States
2016 Signs of Life, Lenscratch Online Gallery
2016 Blank Wall Gallery, Athens, Greece
2016 PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, United States
2016 Photography: A Contemporary Point of View, Site: Brooklyn, Brooklyn, United States
2016 Saatchi Online Gallery, London, United Kingdom

TALKS & TEACHING
2023. When a Book Holds Your Memories, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
2020 The Diggers, Appalachian University, Boone, United States
2020 Will You Remember Maria? Turchin Visual Arts Centre, Boone, United States
2019 Will You Remember Maria?, Conference: Why Remember? Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2019 Will You Remember Maria?, FORMAT19 Conference Presenter, Derby, United Kingdom
2018 Special Guest of Peter Lindbergh, Photo Venezia, Venice, Italy
2018 Artist Talk, MARIA, Musée Ukraina Museum, Saskatoon, Canada
2017 Special Guest of Peter Lindbergh, Palm Spring Photo festival, Palm Springs, United States
2017 Master Class, The Language of Creativity, Gary Bowman Gallery, Lviv, Ukraine
2017 Master Class, The Language of Creativity, N-T Gallery, Odessa, Ukraine

MEMBERSHIP
Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers
Ukrainian Photographic Alternative
Federation of European Photographers

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