Mika Sperling is a lens-based artist and writer who recently resettled back into her hometown
Darmstadt, Germany. She was born as the youngest of eight children in Norilsk, a mining
city in Russia. In her work she combines photographs, video, handwritten texts and her own
voice to confront family conflicts with a highlight on trauma and taboos. She’s a mother of two.
Since 2021 she offers 1:1 coaching for artists.
She’s currently working on her second monograph ‘I Have Done Nothing Wrong’
PLAY (Theatre)
2023 Marseilles FR, Théâtre des Chartreux play based on script Je n’ai rien fait (Translation to French by Aude Fondard) (Premiered in March 2023)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Fotoraum Cologne, Brothers and Sisters (September – October)
2021 Lucerne, CH Ahoi Space, Mother Tongue (August – October)
2018 Oakland, US Before You, Above The Circle Aggregate Space Gallery (September – November)
2017 Swell Gallery Strange Stirring (October)
2017 San Francisco, US Six Sisters, Chapter I Still Light Gallery, (April)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2023 Hamburg, GER UNCOVER II Künstlerhaus Sootbörn (August-September)
2023 NYC, US Tightly Knit, Loose Fit (Mother Tongue) Ortega y Gasset Projects (August)
2023 Hamburg, GER UNCOVER I Westwerk (June-July)
2023 Darmstadt Days of Photography, I Have Done Nothing Wrong (April – May)
2023 Birth of second child (January)
2022 Arles, Louis Discovery Award Rencontres d’Arles, I Have Done Nothing Wrong (July – September)
2022 Hamburg, Vorwerkstift Galerie 21 (April)
2022 Hamburg, Capitis Gallery (December – March)
2021 Hamburg, Kunsthaus, Mother Tongue (December – January)
2021 Amsterdam, Mother Tongue Foam Museum (June – September)
2020 Frankfurt, Mother Tongue Fotografie Forum Frankfurt – recommended Fellowship (August – September)
2020 Hamburg, Before You, Above the Circle Frappant (June – July)
2020 Hamburg, Mother Tongue Deichtorhallen (May – August)
2019 San Francisco, US Before You, Above The Circle Clyde and Co Award Show (May 2018 – December 2019)
2018 San Francisco, US Brothers and Sisters SFAI Alumni Show, Diego Rivera Gallery, (November)
2018 San Anselmo, US Before You, Above The Circle Bay Area Currents Show, Smith Andersen North Gallery (August – September)
2018 San Francisco, US Before You, Above The Circle, Embark Gallery (August – October)
2018 Birth of first child (September)
2018 San Francisco, US Before You, Above The Circle Fort Mason Center of the Arts (May)
2018 San Francisco, US Brothers and Sisters SFO & Photo Alliance (May – August)
2017 San Francisco, US Six Sisters Diego Rivera Gallery, (September)
2017 Emden, GER Brothers and Sisters Kunsthalle Emden (May – November)
2017 San Francisco, US Brothers and Sisters, Walter Mc Bean Gallery (April)
2016 Modena, IT Brothers and Sisters European Photography Award 2016 1st Prize (June – July)
2015 Darmstadt, GER Brothers and Sisters, Faculty of Design (November)
2015 Gallipoli, IT Italian Family Bitume Photofest (September)
2015 San Francisco, US Brothers and Sisters 50 LensCulture Emerging Talents 2015 (August – September)
2015 Pelci, Kuldiga, LVA Final Exhibition of ISSP (August)
2015 Kuala Lumpur, MYS Brothers and Sisters International Photoawards (August)
2015 Wiesbaden, GER Brothers and Sisters Days of Photography in Wiesbaden (June – July)
2015 Darmstadt, GER Brothers and Sisters I like my Diploma h_da (February)
TALKS & LECTURES
2023 Darmstadt, GER – Panel Discussion Days of Photography at h_da University of Applied Science
2022 Arles, FR – Artist Talk Rencontres d’Arles
2019 Darmstadt, GER – Artist Talk at h_da University of Applied Science
2018 Oakland, CA US – Saturday Morning Artist Talk at Aggregate Space Gallery (October)
2018 Norilsk, RU – Artist Talk Polar Art (January)
2017 Arles, FR – Lecture at LeBoudoir 2.0 (July)
AWARDS & GRANTS
2023 Kunstfond ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius
2022 Louis Roederer Discovery Award Public Prize
2021 Zukunftsstipendium Hamburg
2019 Olympus recommended Fellowship
2017 DAAD
2016 Fulbright
COLLABORATIONS
2018 Carlsbad, NM – Resolana, San Francisco-based collective Ojalá, Carlsbad Museum & Art Center (May)
2018 San Francisco, US –The Emergency Has Been Everyday, Diego Rivera Gallery (April)
2017 San Francisco, US – Fully Automatic Exercise Notebook Machine SFMOMA (May)
EDUCATION
2016 – 2018
Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art at the San Francisco Art Institute
2015 – 2016
Studies of Photography in the Master of Arts Program at the University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld in Germany
2009 – 2015
Diploma in Photography & Communication Design at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt in Germany