Madalina Zaharia

Madalina Zaharia’s work interlaces print, video, performance and sculptural installation. She is concerned with the telling and re-telling of ideas, with the continuous and unfaltering reiteration of accounts and associations. Stories and tales embedded in popular culture and how they are remembered, mis-remembered and exaggerated are often her starting point. Zaharia focuses on theatrical moments in time: memories and gestures that illuminate the effect of politics on everyday life.

She has increasingly been moving towards making films and currently has a project called TristxtOTL in development.

Zaharia’s film, Public Figure – made in collaboration with poet and performer Ryan Ormonde, won ‘The best film in the national competition’ prize at Bucharest International Dance Film Festival 2021 and was also part of the official selection of SQIFF 2021 (Scottish Queer International Film Festival) in Glasgow, and GRRL HAUS CINEMA 2021 in Boston, US.

Born 1985, Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania
Lives and works in London

Education
2010 – 2012   Royal College of Art, London (MA Printmaking)
2010   Byam Shaw School of Art, CSM, UAL, London (Postgraduate diploma in Fine art)
2008   University of the Arts, Bucharest, Romania (BA Photography and Video)

Selected Exhibitions

2022
Public Figure screened in Cryptofiction On-Demand, selected by Mania Akbari
Public Figure Artviewer:SCREEN, online screening curated by Cristina Ramos        
Public Figure Third Thursdays Brighton, curated by videoclub

2021
Public Figure GRRL HAUS CINEMA, Brattle Theatre, Boston, USA          
Public Figure SQIFF (Scottish Queer Film Festival), Glasgow            
VIDEO+RADIO+LIVE, Casa Artelor (Collateral event of the Art Encounters Biennial 2021), Timisoara, Romania         
Projection/Projektion, Darmstadter Sezession, Darmstadt, Germany          
Public Figure selected for Bucharest International Dance Film Festival – Winner of The Best Film in the National Competition Award
Secret Language, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2020
My Life Coach Insisted on 90 Days of Self Love, Atelier 35, Bucharest, Romania (curated by Diana Badea and Daria
Nedelcu)
Unstilled Life: Artist Animations 1980 – 2020 (online exhibition), Tintype, London in collaboration with Ron
Mados Gallery, Amsterdam, and blinkvideo, Hamburg (curated by Paul Carey-Kent and Emma Cousin, with Teresa Grimes)
SO FAR SO GOOD, Budapest Gallery, Budapest, Hungary (curated by Flóra Gadó)
Viral self-portraits (online exhibition), Moderna galerija (MG+MSUM), Ljubljana, Slovenia
52proposalsforthe20s, Instagram project curated by Maria Lind

2019
Art Encounters Biennial 2019, Timisoara, Romania (curated by Maria Lind and Anca Rujoiu)
EBC 023, East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol
MOSTYN Open 21, Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales
The Immeasurable, Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London (curtade by Hannah Conroy and Linda Persson)
PPM#4, Aiciacolo, Cluj, Romania
The Web of Fabric, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest
Mimesis; Narrative; Against Hegemony!, APT Gallery, London

2018
Madalina Zaharia’s work was presented alongside the influential Romanian artist Paul Neagu at ARCO Madrid, 21 – 25 February by Ivan Gallery, Bucharest
Reading as Rhythm, Tate Exchange Liverpool (performance in collaboration with Ross Taylor as part of the Control Magazine retrospective
Romanian Art Now, Suprainfinit Gallery, Bucharest

2017
DEBT. Tintype, London (solo)
Tender Buttons SALÓN, Madrid (joint presentation with Fran Meana, curated by Cristina Ramos and Alfredo Aracil)
Mind. Language. Matter, St Mary’s House, Norwich

2016
SAY WHAT? ASC Gallery, London
Identify Your Limitations, Acknowledge The Periphery Vitrine Gallery, London
The Staging of an Exhibition Ivan Gallery (solo), Bucharest
Bench, Tintype, London

2015  
LOOKING LONDON, TALKING TOKYO, Tintype Gallery, London (solo project)
London Open 2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Feel the discourse!, Guest Projects, London
Hidden in plain sight, Norwich University of the Arts  Gallery, Norwich
An Evening with Flat i, Flat i, London

2014
The Forgotten Pioneer Movement, District Kunst- und Kulturforderung, Berlin
A well furnished room, IngridProjects, London (solo exhibition)

2013
Kltz.Pmz.AAAAA!, Tintype Gallery, London (solo exhibition)
Blue Palstic Bag, AIRstudio, Central Saint Martins, UAL (collaboration with Ross Taylor) funded by the Arts Council, England)
The Round Manual, Arch Collective, London

2012
Hospitable Plains, Brussels Arts Factory, Brussels
2nd Exhibition, Café Gallery Projects, London

2011
RE-­?READ, An Assembley Project, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London
1st Exhibition, Café Gallery Projects, London

2010
Pas Pas Cichi Cichi a performance for the sea, Coastal Currents, Hastings
OPEN, 14 Cheshire Street, London
subSTRATUM, Islington Arts Factory, London
In the memory of light, Kingsgate Gallery, London

2009
I KNOW A FRIEND THAT KNOWS A FRIEND…, Het Poortgebouw, Rotterdam
Perfect answers, Factory Projects, London

2008
Real Presence, House of Legacy, Belgrade, Serbia
Archive in Residence, UNA Galeria, Bucharest
Archive in Residence, VBKO, Vienna

2007
The XIVth edition of Vila Nova de Cerveria Biennale, Portugal
A sangue frredo/In cold blood, group exhibition at Romanian Cultural Institute, Venice
FEMIDOM, Galeria Noua, Bucharest

Residencies, grants and awards
Chelsea Arts Club Trust Award, 2019
Oct 2015 – ongoing, Royal Academy Schools Fellowship, London
Windows Commission, AIRstudio, CSM, UAL 2012
Augutus Martin Award, 2012
AIR residency, AIRstudio, London, 2010
Artists’ and Collectors’ Bursary, UAL 2009
REAL PRESENCE, Belgrade, Serbia, 2009

Other Projects and Publications
Control Magazine| Issue Nineteen (contributor), 2014
Neru Phuyt| Issue 1 (contributor), 2014
UM:DRUCK| Issue 25, 2013
Artforum, Best of 2013
Experimental and multimedia, collective novel RUBIK, Bucharest, Romania, 2005 – 08

Filmography
 
Public Figure (2021),
The Six basic Rules of UnTidying (2020)
The Mess Can’t Clean the Hand (2020)
When I Occupy the Present (2019)

Residencies and grants
–
2019   Chelsea Arts Club Trust – Trustees Award 
2013   Windows Comission, AIRstudio, CSM, UAL
2012   Augustus Martin Award
2010   AIR residency, AIRstudio, London
           Artists’ and Collectors’ Bursury, UAL 
2009   REAL PRESENCE, Belgrade, Serbia
 

Collections

Royal College of Art Collection
David Paisey Collection