Biography
Dr. Varvara Keidan Shavrova is a visual artist, curator and writer based in London. She has been awarded AHRC-LAHP studentship for her practice-based PhD “Haptic Flight: Feminist Perspectives on Flight Technologies” at the Royal College of Art ( completed 2026). Varvara’s research focuses on different aspects of flight, including technological flight, and flight in the sense of migration and displacement.
She has exhibited internationally, at Venice Biennale of Architecture, Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Photomuseum Ireland in Dublin, Today Art Museum in Beijing, Beijing Art Museum of Imperial City, York Art Gallery, and Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery. Her recent solo exhibition Textile Memories was shown at the Documentation Centre of Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin (February-November 2025).
In 2026 Varvara will be the recipient of artist residency award at the Fondazione Pistoletto, in Italy. In 2023-2024 she completed the AHRC-funded research placement at the Science Museum London, followed by a panel discussion and exhibition Textiles and Spaceflight at the Science Museum Dana Research Centre and Library in 2025, focusing on gendered labour and the role of textiles in space-flight technologies.
Varvara curated international exhibitions, including InFlight_OnLanding (with Ukrainian refugee women’s group) at Photomuseum Ireland (2023), The Sea is the Limit at York Art Gallery, touring to Virginia Commonwealth University Arts Qatar (2018-2019), and Map Games: Dynamics of Change (co-curated with Feng Boyi and offiCina) at Today Art Museum Beijing, touring to Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery and cAos Contemporary Art Centre in Terni, Italy (2008-2009).
She contributed Chapters to publications: The Sea and the Mobility in the Islamic Art, Yale Publications (2021); Re-Evaluation in Feminism and Contemporary Art, edited by Katy Deepwell, Vernon Press (Forthcoming 2026); Postwar. Art and Architecture, Wrozlaw University Press (Forthcoming 2026); Ruins, Europa-Universität Viadrina (Forthcoming 2026). www.keidan.art