Luba Drozd

Drozd was born in 1982 in Lviv, then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic,[1] and as an adolescent later emigrated to the United States.[2] Drozd received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Graphics and Interactive Media from Pratt Institute in 2006,[3][4] then attended the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film/Video in 2015.[5][4]

Drozd's early works were single and two channel animation and video. For Smack Mellon's 2015 show Respond, Drozd contributed Humane Restraint, a video installation which art critic Jillian Steinhauer said "mashes up cheery instructional videos from mental hospitals and police forces that teach viewers how to properly restrain people . . . [and hinges] brilliantly on the point at which humor quietly swings into seriousness."[6] In that same year, she received a new work grant from the Eastern State Penitentiary for a two-channel video installation called Institute of Corrections,[7] and was a BRIC Media Arts Fellow.[8] In 2016, she was a Fall/Winter 2016-2017 artist resident for the Studios at MASS MoCA,[9] and her piece Solipsism was included in CIM, an exhibition of seven contemporary Ukrainian-American Artists.[10] In 2017 she was a Bronx Museum of the Arts AIM Fellow,[11] with her installation piece subsequently included in that year's Bronx Museum Biennial.[12] In 2017, Drozd had a solo show at Lubov (a gallery in Manhattan), called Soon enough Roads will be Rivers.[13]

In 2018, Drozd received residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts[14][15] and exhibited within a group show at the Pfizer Building in Brooklyn.[16] In 2019 Drozd received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship,[17] and she and William Lamson worked on A Continuous Stream of Occurrence, an exhibition at the Knockdown Center.[18] Her subsequent piece Tarsainn received support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts through their emergency grant program.[19] In late-2019, Drozd created a site specific piece at Sunview Luncheonette.[20] In 2020, Drozd received a Yaddo residency.[21] That same year, she also worked as part of A faint hum, a group installation at the Hessel Museum of Art.[22] Rachel Vera Steinberg said that "Using piano strings, animated projection, sheet metal, micro-controllers, motors, and drywall, Drozd’s new installation yearns for a synesthetic equalization of matter."[22]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, Drozd distributed 3D-printed face shields, based on a design by Prusa Research (the manufacturers of the Prusa i3 3D printers).[23] The shields were designed to be "fabricated with acetate, a hole puncher from a discount store, and rubber bands".[23] On March 30, 2020, a photograph of Drozd creating the masks appeared in a New York Times article on the rise of crowdsourced medical equipment during the pandemic.[24] In May 2020, Drozd told arts magazine Bomb that "[m]uch of [her] art practice deals with the subjectivity of perception on both micro and macro levels."[23] In 2021, Drozd was appointed a Guggenheim Fellow.[25]

On February 24, 2022, Drozd, condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, took part in an anti-invasion march in Manhattan.[2] She has family who remained in Ukraine after her emigration, and she wanted them to flee the country for their safety.[2] She also voiced her "doubts [that] domestic and international pressure would deter [President of Russia Vladimir] Putin from pursuing his plan to take over Ukraine."[2] In November 2022, she returned to Smack Mellon with The Tenacity of a Fluid Trace, an art installation incorporating drywall, piano wire, sheet metal, and steel beams to produce sound.[26] Gregory Volk said that he "would hardly characterize [it] as a direct response to the war, yet correspondences are evident, especially in her deep feeling and respect for matter, in contrast with Putin’s senseless destruction."[26]

• 2015 BRIC Arts Media Media Arts Fellowship[8]
• 2016 Eastern State Penitentiary New Work Grant[7]
• 2016 MASS MoCA Visiting Artist in Residence[9]
• 2017 Bronx Museum of the Arts AIM Fellowship[11]
• 2018 VCCA Resident Artist Fellow[15]
• 2018 Millay Colony for the Arts Artist Residency[14]
• 2019 MacDowell Colony Fellowship[17]
• 2019 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant[19]
• 2020 Yaddo Residency[21]
• 2020 Pioneer Works Technology Residency[27]
• 2021 Guggenheim Fellow[25]

• Official website