(b. 1991, Uzbekistan) lives and works in London, UK.
Zulfiya Spowart’s multimedia practice focuses on invisible gestures of care that underpin social life and infrastructures. The artist examines forms of care - from her own experience of motherhood to specialized assistance in states of vulnerability - as mechanisms that are both supportive and regulatory. Her works bring to light a marginalized “grey zone” of everyday practices, granting them political significance and affective expressivity, often through a monumental format. By using recycled and secondary materials, Spowart emphasizes the cyclical nature of invisible labor and constructs a tactile economy of interaction. An important source for her practice is the material heritage of her native Central Asia, understood as a system of functional knowledge in which no form is accidental, but rather linked to action and to the logic of sustaining and continuing life.
— Dilda Ramazan,curator
Education:
2013-2017 - Mural Arts at National Institute of Fine Arts and Design named after Kamoliddin Behzod
Exhibitions:
2026 “The Aural Sea” The Uzbekistan National Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale of Art
2026 “Theatre of Memory” Lohuti Theatre, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
2025 Luxembourg Art Week, Glacis Square, Luxembourg
2025 “Surface Reflections” The Silk Road Pavilion - London Design Biennial, Somerset House, London, UK
2025 “In/Visible” Group Exhibition, Galleria d’East, Compiègne, France
2024 “Elly-Belly” Solo Exhibition, London, UK
2024 “The Mirror” Group Exhibition, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
2024 “The First Art Festival”, Regeneration, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
2019 “Another Spaces” Exhibition of five female artists, Kvartira, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
2017 “Tsvetaeva. Phaedra" Trio Exhibition, Mark Weil Theatre, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Artist in Residence:
01.02.2025-31.03.2025 Art’otel Hoxton, London, UK
Publications:
2026 ODRA Platform: Essay “Frames and Borders: Beyond the Binary Frameworks of Tradition Versus High Art”
Workshops:
2025 Somerset House, Silk Road Pavilion at the London Design Biennale: Immersive Textile
2025 Art’Otel Hoxton: Mothers Day Textile Collage
Press:
2026 The Times Central Asia https://timesca.com/the-aural-sea-uzbekistan-pavilion-2026-venice-biennale/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio
2026 E-Flux https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/6787386/the-aural-sea
2026 Canvas Online https://canvasonline.com/pavilions-to-see-at-the-venice-biennale-2026/
2026 Art- News https://www.artnews.com/list/art-news/reviews/venice-biennale-2026-best-national-pavilions-1234784517/morocco-2/
2026 Art Review https://bellevue.nzz.ch/reisen-entdecken/kultur/venedig-biennale-2026-die-besten-ausstellungen-im-ueberblick-ld.1934671
2026 Bellevue https://bellevue.nzz.ch/reisen-entdecken/kultur/venedig-biennale-2026-die-besten-ausstellungen-im-ueberblick-ld.1934671
2026 Harpers Bazaar, japan https://www.harpersbazaar.com/jp/culture/arts/a71367345/venice-biennale-uzbekistan-pavillion-260521-hb/
2025 Elle Uzbekistan https://elleuzbekistan.com/en/a-silk-road-reimagined/
2025 Elle Uzbekistan https://elleuzbekistan.com/en/textile-threads-stories-of-motherhood-in-the-works-of-a-young-artist/
2020 Magazine My Day Special Spring cover myday-special
https://www.yumpu.com/ru/document/read/63185501/myday-special-2020/17
2019 Cafb Asia
2017 My Day Uzbekistan