Daria Kalashnikova is a mixed media artist, performer, writer, public speaker and activist from Ukraine
She was born in 1989 in Luhansk, where she was one of the co-organizers of the pro-European Euromaidan protests in 2013. Due to the Russian-Ukrainian war that began in 2014 and the occupation of Luhansk, she was forced to flee to Kyiv and became an internally displaced person (IDP).
In 2011, Kalashnikova graduated from the Eastern Ukrainian National University, where she received a master's degree with honors in international economics.
In 2014 Daria Kalashnikova ran for a seat in the Ukrainian Parliament.
In 2014-2015 she was an advisor to the Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine, and in 2015-2019 she was an advisor to MP Mustafa Masi Nayyem.
In 2019-2020 Kalashnikova studied performance directing and screenwriting at Højskolen Snoghøj (Fredericia, Denmark).
After February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the war, Daria moved from Kyiv to Lutsk. Since May 2022, Kalashnikova has been living as a refugee in Latvia, where she is active in her artistic endeavors.
Her performances have moved critics and audiences at many art festivals.
Riga Performance Festival Starptelpa, Riga Summer Festival, Survival Kit and has been presented in the M. Zilinskas Gallery of the M. K. ČIURLIONIS NATIONAL ART MUSEUM. (Kaunas, Lithuania - European Capital of Culture 2022), Latvian National Art Museum, Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine (Riga, Latvia).
The video version of the performances was selected for the exhibition "Bravery. Made in Ukraine' at the Avangarden Gallery in Kyiv in 2022 and shown on Lithuanian National Television.
Kalashnikova's conceptual visual art works and installations dedicated to the ongoing war in Ukraine were selected for the 2022 Biennial of Drawing (organized by OSTEN Skopje, North Macedonia), the online gallery Brave.ua (organized by the leading Ukrainian creative agency "Banda") and the cultural project "Ukraine. Residence of Freedom'' in 2023.
In October 2022 Kalashnikova held her solo painting exhibition "The Traits of Tireless Freedom" at the EU House in Riga, Latvia. In 2023 she made the cover illustration for the book "Rendering of Ukrainian proper names in Latvian. Recommendations", published by the Latvian Language Agency.
Daria Kalashnikova is a writer of prose and poetry. Her essays and journalistic articles have been published in Latvia and Germany. Her novel "The Shadow and the Sea" will be published in Latvian by AMINORI Publishing House in autumn 2023. The book was produced with the support of a project of the Goethe Institute in Riga(which is part of a comprehensive package of measures funded by the German Foreign Office from the Supplementary Budget 2022 to mitigate the effects of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine) and financially supported by the Riga City Council.
Daria Kalashnikova is a mixed media artist, performer, writer, public speaker and activist from Ukraine
She was born in 1989 in Luhansk, where she was one of the co-organizers of the pro-European Euromaidan protests in 2013. Due to the Russian-Ukrainian war that began in 2014 and the occupation of Luhansk, she was forced to flee to Kyiv and became an internally displaced person (IDP).
In 2011, Kalashnikova graduated from the Eastern Ukrainian National University, where she received a master's degree with honors in international economics.
In 2014 Daria Kalashnikova ran for a seat in the Ukrainian Parliament.
In 2014-2015 she was an advisor to the Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine, and in 2015-2019 she was an advisor to MP Mustafa Masi Nayyem.
In 2019-2020 Kalashnikova studied performance directing and screenwriting at Højskolen Snoghøj (Fredericia, Denmark).
After February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the war, Daria moved from Kyiv to Lutsk. Since May 2022, Kalashnikova has been living as a refugee in Latvia, where she is active in her artistic endeavors.
Her performances have moved critics and audiences at many art festivals. Riga Performance Festival Starptelpa, Riga Summer Festival, Survival Kit and has been presented in the M. Zilinskas Gallery of the M. K. ČIURLIONIS NATIONAL ART MUSEUM. (Kaunas, Lithuania - European Capital of Culture 2022), Latvian National Art Museum, Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine (Riga, Latvia).
The video version of the performances was selected for the exhibition "Bravery. Made in Ukraine' at the Avangarden Gallery in Kyiv in 2022 and shown on Lithuanian National Television.
Kalashnikova's conceptual visual art works and installations dedicated to the ongoing war in Ukraine were selected for the 2022 Biennial of Drawing (organized by OSTEN Skopje, North Macedonia), the online gallery Brave.ua (organized by the leading Ukrainian creative agency "Banda") and the cultural project "Ukraine. Residence of Freedom'' in 2023.
In October 2022 Kalashnikova held her solo painting exhibition "The Traits of Tireless Freedom" at the EU House in Riga, Latvia. In 2023 she made the cover illustration for the book "Rendering of Ukrainian proper names in Latvian. Recommendations", published by the Latvian Language Agency.
Daria Kalashnikova is a writer of prose and poetry. Her essays and journalistic articles have been published in Latvia and Germany. Her novel "The Shadow and the Sea" will be published in Latvian by AMINORI Publishing House in autumn 2023. The book was produced with the support of a project of the Goethe Institute in Riga (which is part of a comprehensive package of measures funded by the German Foreign Office from the Supplementary Budget 2022 to mitigate the effects of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine) and financially supported by the Riga City Council.