A woman smiling with a digital and abstract background. Her shirt has a pattern of numbers and circuit lines on it, suggesting a tech theme.

Nata Drachinskaya is a visual artist based in Santa Clara, CA, USA. She graduated from the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Moscow, Russia, and has participated in art residencies and workshops in the Netherlands, Georgia, Japan, Hungary, and Russia. Her preferred mediums include sculpture—primarily in concrete—photography, and mixed media.

Drachinskaya’s work explores the theme of personal memory woven into the fabric of collective history. Born in the USSR, her childhood and years living in Russia deeply influence her art. She reflects on reassembling identity and envisioning the future by processing the past.

Now Nata teaches art classes in the Pacific Art League and volunteer in the Cantor Arts Center.  Her works have been exhibited in venues such as Reminders Project (Tokyo, Japan), Pacific Art League (Palo Alto, CA, USA), Nick Gallery (Pécs, Hungary), Art Kvartal (Yerevan, Armenia), Tbilisi Multimedia Museum (Tbilisi, Georgia), Street Sans Frontières (Paris, France), CCA Winzavod (Moscow, Russia), MOMMA (Moscow, Russia), MAMM (Moscow, Russia), Cube Moscow (Russia), the “Presence” Festival by Fotodepartament (Saint Petersburg, Russia), the Festival of Contemporary Art “Art-Subject” (Vladimir, Russia), Blazar Art Fair (Moscow, Russia), and more.

Education 

2019 - 2021 Institute of Contemporary Art/ ICA Moscow (Russia)

2019 - 2020 Institute of Contemporary Photography “Fotodepartament” (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)

2018 - 2019 Project art school curated by Alla Mirovskaya (Moscow, Russia)

2017 - 2017 Master-class “Material experiments with photography” (FOAM, Amsterdam)

Art Residences

2025 Reminders Photography Stronghold (Tokyo, Japan)

2022 Photobook as an Object (RPS, Tokyo, Japan)

2022 The Concrete Symposium sculptural residency (Szigetmonostor, Hungary)

2019 Autumn Awakeness art-residence be M42 (Tbilisi) 

2018-2019 “Writing the place” art-residence by Cultural Center ZIL (Moscow)

Selected Exhibitions 

2025 “Binom” solo exhibition (Reminders Photography Stronghold, Tokyo, Japan)

2024 “Boundaries” exhibition in the New Museum (Los Gatos, CA, USA)

2023 Annual exhibition in the Pacific Art League (Palo Alto, CA, USA)

2023 “Dream Space” gamified meta-verse project with support of Chimera Platform, UK - solo

2023 “Photobook as an Object” (RPS Kyoto Paperoles, Kyoto, Japan)

2022  “Paper dialogue” collective collage performance in the Ren House gallery  (Dubai, UAE)

2022  “BETON ARCAI 7.0” (Nick Gallery, Pécs, Hungary)

2022 ““Perevorot_illustrated” (Yerevan, St. Petersburg, Moscow, New York and Easton) 

2022 “Art of the future” biennale by Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow, Russia) 

2021 “Time of Things” (Winzavod, Moscow)

2021 “Constructor_Death”, Constructor space (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)

2021 “(In)visible cities”, Nagornaya gallery (Moscow, Russia)

2020 “TemperatYRA 2.0”, Electrozavod gallery (Moscow, Russia)

2020 “Photobook and zin: dummy”, Winzavod Center of Contemporary Art (Moscow, Russia)

2020 “Regard (less)”, Cube gallery (Moscow, Russia)

2020 Blazar art fair (Moscow, Russia)

2020 “Baseless”, Winzavod Center of Contemporary Art (Moscow, Russia)

2020 “Winter is here”, Gilyarovsky Center (Moscow, Russia)

2019 Collage exhibition, Gilyarovsky Center (Moscow, Russia)

2019 “Presence” international festival of contemporary photography by Fotodepartament (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)

2019 “Digitaion / Family Diamonds”, art gallery “The Arc”, (Uglich, Russia) - solo

2019 “MoscowMorphosis”, Gilyarovsky Center (Moscow, Russia)

2018 Street Sans Frontières (Paris, France)

2018 Festival of contemporary art “Art-subject” (Vladimir, Russia)

Grants 

2025 Emergency Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Awards 

2024 “Binom” photobook project is a finalist and has an honorable mention in the Athens Dummy Award (Greece)

2023 Shortlisted in the Portrait: Single image category by the Contemporary Collage Magazine Awards (USA)

2023 “Binom” photobook project is shortlisted by Photobook Award EI 2023 (Encontros da Imagem, Braga, Portugal)

2017 LensCulture Street Photography awards (editors choice) 

2017 London Street Photography (finalist)

2017 Monochrome Awards (honorable mention)

2016 IPA CIS (honorable mention)

CV