ANASTASIA SAMOYLOVA

But the mood in these pictures is pensive. Crumbling walls contrast with images of the tourist paradise, the booming real estate market focuses on luxurious apartment buildings overlooking the sea, while nature is taking over in unlikely places. Hurricanes threaten and water is everywhere.

Waves, ripples, puddles, pools, splash and spray also characterise Anastasia Samoylova’s urban scenes and unexpected views: Her elegant, subtle and often unsettling images capture in a unique way the precarious state of life on the verge of destruction.

Anastasia Samoylova (b. 1984, Moscow; lives in Miami) moves between observational photography, studio practice and installation. In 2020 she had her first solo museum exhibition of ongoing project FloodZone at USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa. With over 80 photographs, the book of the project was published by Steidl in 2019.

Samoylova was awarded a number of grants for FloodZone, including the South Arts Fellowship and Michael P. Smith Fund for Documentary Photography. In 2020 her work will be presented at the Kunsthaus Wien, as well as Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen, and Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany, as part of the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie. Her other recent exhibitions include Perez Art Museum, Miami; Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, Purdue University, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Griffin Museum of Photography, Julie Saul Gallery, New York; Aperture Foundation, New York; as well as numerous festivals in Brazil, Belgium, France, Spain, Israel, Netherlands, China, and South Korea.

Samoylova has published with The New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, FOAM, Wired, Art Press, and others. She has lectured as an invited artist at George Eastman Museum, Paris Photo, SVA New York, among others. Her work is in the collections at the Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, and Art Slant Collection in Paris.