Artist Biography

Nika Neelova (born in 1987, Moscow) now lives and works in London. She holds an MA in Fine Art (Sculpture) from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, and a BA in Fine Art (Interdisciplinary) from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague.

 

Through her work Nika Neelova uses reclaimed architectural materials to explore our sense of time and place. Her sculptures and installations, made often with reclaimed architectural materials, are created by employing tactics of what she calls “reverse archaeology”, bypassing straightforward means of fabrication to find modes of retrieving and revealing information within the multiplicities of human histories within inanimate things.

 

Neelova’s work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, including “Cascade” at The Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria (2025); “Through a Glass Darkly” at Sir John Soane Museum, London, UK (2025); “Beghost” at NIKA Project Space, Dubai, UAE (2024); and “Thaw” at Noire Gallery, Turin, Italy (2023).

Her recent group exhibitions include “Ortigia Contemporanea”, Sicily, Italy (2024); “Ordine e disordine” at Noire Gallery, Turin, Italy (2024); “From Birth to Earth” at Parafin, London, UK (2023); and “(Everything Is) Not What it Seems”, Piran Coastal Galleries Museum (2023) & Nitja Centre for Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway (2022).

 

She has received several awards, including the Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize, the Saatchi New Sensations award, and the Arts Council National Lottery Grant. 

 

Her works are held in public collections such as the Saatchi Gallery Collection, Celine Art Collection, and the DRAF David Roberts Art Foundation Collection, as well as in numerous private collections across Europe and the US.