Luba Drozd
{{Short description|Ukrainian-American artist}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2023}}
{{use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox artist
| birth_date = 1982
| birth_place = Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
| alma_mater = {{plainlist|
}}
| awards = Guggenheim Fellow (2021)
}}
Luba Drozd (born 1982) is an American installation artist.
Biography
Drozd was born in 1982 in Lviv, then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic,{{Cite web |title=Luba Drozd (b. 1982) |url=https://cpmprogram.com/luba-drozd-b-1982 |access-date=2023-05-25 |website=Critical Path Method |language=en-US}} and as an adolescent later emigrated to the United States. Drozd received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Graphics and Interactive Media from Pratt Institute in 2006,{{Cite web|first=|date=|title=Pratt Institute {{!}} News {{!}} Members of the Pratt Community Sew Masks and 3D-Print Face Shields to Combat COVID-19|url=https://www.pratt.edu/news/view/members-of-the-pratt-community-sew-masks-and-3d-print-face-shields-to-comba|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-06-21|website=www.pratt.edu}} then attended the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film/Video in 2015.{{Cite web|last=Relations|first=Bard Public|title=Luba Drozd MFA '15 Is Making Masks for New York Doctors and Nurses with a GoFundMe Campaign and a 3D Printer|url=https://www.bard.edu/news/details/?id=16721|access-date=2020-06-21|website=www.bard.edu|language=en}}{{Cite web |title=CV |url=https://www.lubadrozd.com/page-cv |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=luba drozd |language=en-US}}
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."{{Cite web|date=2015-02-13|title=After a Call for Change, Artists Respond|url=https://hyperallergic.com/182346/after-a-call-for-change-artists-respond/|access-date=2023-05-26|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US}} 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,{{Cite web|title=Luba Drozd: Institute of Corrections|url=https://www.easternstate.org/explore/artist-installations/luba-drozd-institute-corrections|access-date=2020-06-21|website=www.easternstate.org|language=en}} and was a BRIC Media Arts Fellow.{{Cite web|last=admini|first=BRIC|date=2009-06-15|title=BRIC Media Arts Fellowship|url=https://www.bricartsmedia.org/artist-opportunities/fellowships/bric-media-arts-fellowship|access-date=2020-06-21|website=BRIC|language=en}} In 2016, she was a Fall/Winter 2016-2017 artist resident for the Studios at MASS MoCA,{{Cite web|title=The Studios Archive|url=https://www.assetsforartists.org/the-studios-archive|access-date=2023-05-26|website=Assets for Artists|language=en-US}} and her piece Solipsism was included in CIM, an exhibition of seven contemporary Ukrainian-American Artists.{{Cite web |title=CIM. An exhibition of seven contemporary artists - Ukrainian Museum (NYC) Exhibition |url=http://www.ukrainianmuseum.org/ex_161211_CIM.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621180033/http://www.ukrainianmuseum.org/ex_161211_CIM.html |archive-date=2020-06-21 |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=www.ukrainianmuseum.org}} In 2017 she was a Bronx Museum of the Arts AIM Fellow,{{Cite web|title=Past Fellows|url=http://www.bronxmuseum.org/aim/aim-fellowship|access-date=2023-05-26|website=www.bronxmuseum.org}} with her installation piece subsequently included in that year's Bronx Museum Biennial.{{Cite magazine|title=Bronx Calling The Fourth AIM Biennial|url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/art/bronx-calling-the-fourth-aim-biennial|access-date=2020-06-21|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en}} In 2017, Drozd had a solo show at Lubov (a gallery in Manhattan), called Soon enough Roads will be Rivers.{{Cite web|date=2017-05-15|title=Light-Soaked Galleries, Meditative Street Ads, and More Art Exhibitions|url=https://bedfordandbowery.com/2017/05/light-soaked-galleries-meditative-street-ads-and-more-art-exhibitions/|access-date=2020-06-21|website=Bedford + Bowery|language=en-US}}
In 2018, Drozd received residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts{{Cite web|last=Ostroth|first=Amy|date=2018-02-22|title=Virginia Center for the Creative Arts to hold salon at Sweet Briar|url=https://sbc.edu/news/virginia-center-for-the-creative-arts-to-hold-salon-at-sweet-briar/|access-date=2023-05-26|website=Sweet Briar College {{!}} News|language=en-US}} and exhibited within a group show at the Pfizer Building in Brooklyn.{{Cite web|title=This is Not Here: 57 Artists Challenge the Gamut of Everything|url=http://hafny.org/blog/2018/5/this-is-not-here-57-artists-challenge-the-gamut-of-everything|access-date=2020-06-21|website=Humble Arts Foundation|language=en-US}} In 2019 Drozd received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship,{{Cite web|title=Luba Drozd - Artist|url=https://www.macdowellcolony.org/artists/luba-drozd|access-date=2020-06-21|website=MacDowell Colony|language=en}} and she and William Lamson worked on A Continuous Stream of Occurrence, an exhibition at the Knockdown Center.{{Cite web|title=Nota Bene with @postuccio [iv] – Art Spiel|date=March 28, 2019 |url=https://artspiel.org/nota-bene-with-postuccio-iv/|access-date=2020-06-21|language=en-US}} Her subsequent piece Tarsainn received support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts through their emergency grant program.{{Cite web |title=2019 Emergency Grants: Visual Arts :: Foundation for Contemporary Arts |url=https://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/2019emergencygrantsvisualarts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621191052/https://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/2019emergencygrantsvisualarts |archive-date=2020-06-21 |access-date=2023-05-25 |website=www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org}} In late-2019, Drozd created a site specific piece at Sunview Luncheonette.{{Cite web|title=The Sunview|url=http://thesunview.org/|access-date=2020-06-21|website=The Sunview Luncheonette|language=en}} In 2020, Drozd received a Yaddo residency.{{Cite web|title=In An Emergency, Art! – Yaddo|url=https://www.yaddo.org/in-an-emergency-art/|access-date=2020-06-21|website=www.yaddo.org}} That same year, she also worked as part of A faint hum, a group installation at the Hessel Museum of Art.{{Cite web|title=A faint hum|url=https://ccs.bard.edu/museum/exhibitions/559-a-faint-hum|access-date=2023-05-26|website=CCS Bard|language=en}} 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."
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).{{Cite web|title=Symptom of Society: Luba Drozd's PPE Fabrication Initiative by Jasmine Dreame Wagner - BOMB Magazine|url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/symptom-of-society-luba-drozds-ppe-fabrication-project/|access-date=2020-06-21|website=bombmagazine.org|first=Jasmine Dreame|last=Wagner|date=May 21, 2020 }} The shields were designed to be "fabricated with acetate, a hole puncher from a discount store, and rubber bands". 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.{{Cite news |last1=Jacobs |first1=Andrew |last2=Abrams |first2=Rachel |date=2020-03-30 |title=Hive Mind of Makers Rises to Meet Pandemic |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/health/coronavirus-innovators.html |access-date=2023-05-25 |issn=0362-4331}} 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." In 2021, Drozd was appointed a Guggenheim Fellow.{{Cite web |title=Luba Drozd |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/luba-drozd/ |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |language=en-US}}
On February 24, 2022, Drozd, condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, took part in an anti-invasion march in Manhattan.{{Cite web |last=Bishara |first=Hakim |date=2022-02-25 |title=Ukrainian Artists Speak Out As Invasion Intensifies |url=http://hyperallergic.com/713794/ukrainian-artists-speak-out-as-invasion-intensifies/ |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US}} She has family who remained in Ukraine after her emigration, and she wanted them to flee the country for their safety. 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." 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.{{Cite web |last=Volk |first=Gregory |date=2022-11-03 |title=Two Sparse Brooklyn Exhibitions Probe the Elemental Forces of Life |url=http://hyperallergic.com/776094/two-sparse-brooklyn-exhibitions-probe-the-elemental-forces-of-life/ |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US}} 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."
Awards
- 2015 BRIC Arts Media Media Arts Fellowship
- 2016 Eastern State Penitentiary New Work Grant
- 2016 MASS MoCA Visiting Artist in Residence
- 2017 Bronx Museum of the Arts AIM Fellowship
- 2018 VCCA Resident Artist Fellow
- 2018 Millay Colony for the Arts Artist Residency{{Cite web |title=Artists 2018 |url=https://www.millaycolony.org/artists-2018/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923161904/https://www.millaycolony.org/artists-2018/ |archive-date=2020-09-23 |access-date=2023-05-26 |website=The Millay Colony for the Arts |language=en-US}}
- 2019 MacDowell Colony Fellowship
- 2019 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant
- 2020 Yaddo Residency
- 2020 Pioneer Works Technology Residency{{Cite web|title=Luba Drozd|url=https://pioneerworks.org/residency/luba-drozd/|access-date=2020-06-21|website=Pioneer Works|language=en-US}}
- 2021 Guggenheim Fellow
==References==
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.lubadrozd.com Official website]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drozd, Luba}}
Category:21st-century Ukrainian women artists
Category:21st-century American women artists
Category:American installation artists
Category:MacDowell Colony fellows