Maria Gvardeitseva (born 1982) is a multidisciplinary artist from Minsk, Belarus, who lives and works between Lisbon and Riga. Working across installation, performance, sculpture and photography, she transforms personal and collective experiences of pain, loss and desire into visual narratives where realism meets mythic imagery. Memory sits at the centre of her practice: what is remembered, what is forgotten, and why.

Maria holds an MA in Arts and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London, and studied Art History and Art & Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Since 2021 she has held solo exhibitions across Europe, including at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Minsk, the Mark Rothko Art Museum in Daugavpils and the Museum of Free Belarus in Warsaw. Her project BITTER HERBS travelled to museums in Riga, Vilnius and Warsaw, including the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum. Her work has also been shown at Photo London, the Courtauld Institute’s East Wing Biennial and in Venice. In 2022 she was a finalist in the national selection for the Belarusian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, and in 2025 her artist book 5-Minute Bedtime Stories was published by Skira.

Politics, feminism and ritual run throughout her work. In the performance Anatomy of Citizenship, she submerged her Belarusian passport in a jar of formaldehyde, likening the torn document to specimens in anatomical museums. Research is central to her process. Archives, documents, museum collections and found objects become starting points for questions about power, labour, intimacy and gender. By removing objects from their familiar social meanings, she reveals how people assemble and edit their own narratives, much like a film montage.

Maria works with materials that can hold a trace or imitate the body, such as wax, porcelain, latex, hair, plants, textiles and bodily impressions. These materials age, deteriorate and transform over time. Humour and irony let her unsettle familiar structures and approach difficult subjects without fixing their meaning.

https://mariagvardeitseva.com/