Mika Sperling was born as the youngest of eight children in the remote, closed city of Norilsk, Russia. She later relocated to Germany, where she pursued studies in photography and book design before completing her MFA in studio art at the San Francisco Art Institute in California.
Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in photography and writing. Time and again, she returns to her childhood, seeking to confront significant, often traumatic, life events. Through this introspective process, she unravels the complex emotions attached to these memories, aiming to understand and ultimately heal. Since the age of thirteen, Sperling has used self-portraiture and creative writing as tools for documenting and processing her personal journey.
Currently residing and working in Darmstadt, Germany, her work has been exhibited internationally at renowned venues such as the Rencontres d’Arles, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Fort Mason Center for Arts, and the Foam Museum in Amsterdam. Sperling’s project I Have Done Nothing Wrong has garnered several prestigious awards, including the Louis Roederer Discovery Award, the Zeitstiftung Bucerius Fellowship, and the German DGPH Award. In 2024, it was published as a monograph by Actes Sud, marking her second major publication.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Arles, FR Actes Sud Bookstore I Have Done Nothing Wrong (July – September)
2025 Bolzano, IT Foto Forum I Have Done Nothing Wrong (January)
2024 Geneva, CH Les Créatives, Théâtre Saint-Gervais I Have Done Nothing Wrong (November)
2024 Kiel, GER Photo + Medienforum I Have Done Nothing Wrong (August – September)
2022 Fotoraum Cologne, Brothers and Sisters (September – October)
2021 Lucerne, CH Ahoi Space, Mother Tongue (August – October)
2018 Birth of first child (September)
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)
2026 Les Mesnuls, France I Have Done Nothing Wrong, Les Mesnographies (June – July)
2025 Cortona, Italy I Have Done Nothing Wrong, Cortona on the Move (July – November)
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, 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)
PLAY (Theatre)
2023 Marseilles FR, Théâtre des Chartreux play based on script Je n’ai rien fait (Translation to French by Aude Fondard)
2024 June
2024 February
2023 October
2023 March (Premiere)
TALKS, LECTURES & RESIDENCIES
2025 Wiesbaden, GER Wiesbadener Tage der Fotografie
2025 Cortona, IT Exhibition Tour, Cortona on the Move
2025 Arles, FR Artist Talk, Rencontres d’Arles
2024 Geneva, CH – Artist Talks Art and resilience // Association Viol-Secours tba
2024 Kiel, GER – Artist talk at Photo nights // Photomedienforum (August)
2023 Darmstadt, GER – Panel discussion at h_da University of Applied Science
2022 Arles, FR – Artist Talks Rencontres d’Arles
2022 Bergwitz, GER – Passage AIR
2019 Darmstadt, GER – Artist Talk at h_da University of Applied Science
2018 Oakland, CA US – Artist Talk at Aggregate Space Gallery (October)
2018 Norilsk, RU – Artist Talk Polar Art (January)
2017 Arles, FR – Lecture at LeBoudoir 2.0 (July)
2015 Gallipoli, IT – Bitume Photo Residency (September)
AWARDS & GRANTS
2024 DGPh Photographer Award
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