Sinaida Michalskaja
Selected works
Sinaida Michalskaja lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Her practice treats paradox as a tool for world-building, merging linguistic observation with sensual experience across sculpture, photography, video, and text. Michalskaja often works with found footage and visual or textual citations, re-contextualising fragments and bringing them into dialogue. Her process is one of rigorous collection: concepts drawn from cybernetics, systems theory, and queer theory are paired with physical artefacts – such as rakes, windows, keys – to guide seemingly incompatible systems into conversation. Circularity is not merely a motif in her work; it shapes its very structure, framing both concept and experience.
Her solo and two-person exhibitions include Drei Schwestern (with Andrey Bogush), Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin (2023); mixed feeling breaking patterns, Zarinbal Khoshbakht, Cologne (2020); Soft Hits, Kunstraum Ortloff, Leipzig (2019); and Ideas, Ideals, Deals, Acht Quadrat, Cologne (2017). Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as Neu Cöln, Stoffpavillion Müller, Cologne (2025), Metal and the Flesh, Horse and Pony, Berlin (2024); Tagesschau, Mountains, Berlin (2022); Ici et là-bas, Goethe-Institut, Paris (2022); Tell me I belong, MISC, Athens; Verstärkung / Amplification, HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Graz (2021); and The Place I Once Called Home, Breiterhof, Munich (2020).
Exhibitions at Shahin Zarinbal
wrong museum / wrong: horse, 2026
Volution, 2024 (group)
Tell me you belong, 2023 (group)
Drei Schwestern, 2023
THE AGE, 2022 (group)
Sinaida Michalskaja
Selected works
Installation view, hell is other people (if you're lucky), Stadthausgalerie Münster, 2026
Installation view, hell is other people (if you're lucky), Stadthausgalerie Münster, 2026
Multipass (chicken), 2023.
Multipass (for you), 2023.
Multipass (for alignment), 2023.
Multipass (for cosmic alllove), 2023.
Dream of Shame, 2023. Pencil on 4 walls, (quote from Shame by Ingmar Bergman), dimensions variable
Pole for Paul (Schließe die Augen, ich bin eine Landschaft für dich), 2020. Scaffold pole mounting in Flecktarn gaiter, Cenei Scoper K1 slide projectors in Flecktarn covers, 35 mm slides: 'Neuronenstern des Krebsnebels, T-R 176/8' and 'The Dog From MIB 2, 23.06.2002, New York', 324 x 28 x 28 cm
Pole for Paul (Schließe die Augen, ich bin eine Landschaft für dich), 2020. (detail)
Pole for Paul (Schließe die Augen, ich bin eine Landschaft für dich), 2020 (detail)
seal/dichtung 3 (allmxlqxhtsdantasien/4K reality pro), 2020. Two-channel Full-HD video, 49" screens, Raspbery Pis, 60 min, no sound, galvanised scaffold pole mounting, paving block, 324 x 64 x 70 cm
10 of Clubs (back to binary), 2020. UV print on foam board, rhinestones, screws, 170 x 114 x 1.9 cm
Installation view, Soft Hits, Ortloff, Leipzig, 2019
Linke Wand links 2, 2019. C-print mounted on aluminium between two sheets of glass, 30 × 26 cm
viel zu wenig viel zu viel, 2019. Window sticker, variable dimensions (from Abfall für Alle by Rainald Goetz)
Sinaida Michalskaja lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Her practice treats paradox as a tool for world-building, merging linguistic observation with sensual experience across sculpture, photography, video, and text. Michalskaja often works with found footage and visual or textual citations, re-contextualising fragments and bringing them into dialogue. Her process is one of rigorous collection: concepts drawn from cybernetics, systems theory, and queer theory are paired with physical artefacts – such as rakes, windows, keys – to guide seemingly incompatible systems into conversation. Circularity is not merely a motif in her work; it shapes its very structure, framing both concept and experience.
Her solo and two-person exhibitions include Drei Schwestern (with Andrey Bogush), Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin (2023); mixed feeling breaking patterns, Zarinbal Khoshbakht, Cologne (2020); Soft Hits, Kunstraum Ortloff, Leipzig (2019); and Ideas, Ideals, Deals, Acht Quadrat, Cologne (2017). Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as Neu Cöln, Stoffpavillion Müller, Cologne (2025), Metal and the Flesh, Horse and Pony, Berlin (2024); Tagesschau, Mountains, Berlin (2022); Ici et là-bas, Goethe-Institut, Paris (2022); Tell me I belong, MISC, Athens; Verstärkung / Amplification, HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Graz (2021); and The Place I Once Called Home, Breiterhof, Munich (2020).
Exhibitions at Shahin Zarinbal
wrong museum / wrong: horse, 2026
Volution, 2024 (group)
Tell me you belong, 2023 (group)
Drei Schwestern, 2023
THE AGE, 2022 (group)