Alisa Lisovskaia: curator, art historian, art consultant

Afisha.London magazine continues to talk about talented artists, their creative path and interesting projects. The heroine of today’s article is Alisa Lisovskaia, curator and art consultant, who has been working in the sphere of art and culture for more than 10 years, combining work experience in Russian, European and American art institutions.

The career path of Alisa Lisovskaia began at Moscow State University. Having received a Bachelor’s degree there, she had been an intern at Bologna University in Italy. Speaking Italian and English languages, she became a specialist in cultural studies and art history. Meanwhile, Alisa was performing at the Moscow Central House of Artists as a pro-bono exhibition projects coordinator and publishing research and articles in scientific, popular-scientific, and self-publishing journals. Today Lisovskaia is writing for Russian and English magazines — Artguide, Syg.ma, Beatrice Magazine, Made In Bed, and enthusiastically takes part in local art initiatives, including art podcasts.

Follow us on Twitter for news about Russian life and culture

Alisa has got her Master’s degree at the Russian State University for the Humanities, Higher School of European cultures, Moscow, having won a student contest and received a German academic exchange DAAD scholarship for studying at Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany.

Simultaneously with her journalistic and research activities, Lisovskaia was engaged in educational art projects creation, conducting lectures at the Grin Library and the Museum of Fashion in Moscow. Having many contacts in the art and culture industry, she took up art dealing, helping the artists she worked with to promote their legacy, improve self-presentation skills, prepare for participation in exhibition projects in Moscow galleries.

A period of continuous professional development in the field of curatorship and project management was several years of work in the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, and then in the Moscow Kremlin Museums, where Alisa curated more than 15 All-Russian and international exhibition projects. Every time, the exhibitions with the participation of Russian museums and private collections were received with sympathy by the mass media. The exhibition project of the Tsaritsyno Museum Triennale was especially popular, where Lisovskaia worked with many emerging and already successful artists of various mediums from all over the country, whose best works were selected for the exhibition. One of the last exhibitions in the Moscow Kremlin Museums Bvlgari. Tribute to Femininity. Magnificent Roman Jewels became a landmark for the museum in 2019.

After moving to the USA in 2019, Alisa has expanded her range of activities and has started to pay attention to educational activities in art and culture. She was invited as a speaker to the course of Contemporary Russian art at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she taught for several semesters, introducing students to talented and young artists’ works, interesting art projects and art businesses in Russia, and shared her curatorial experience. Moreover, during the pandemic, Lisovskaia was engaged in the development and assistance of local art projects with the focus on helping artists in Chicago and Illinois state who were left without means of livelihood. So, she began to actively promote the Instagram project by.and.far, to involve various representatives of the local art community in cooperation and launch an online platform.

Thanks to the Master’s program at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York, Alisa has expanded her field of expertise and competence, showing interest as a curator in digital art and art start-ups.

Mikhail Levin, director of the Moscow School of Contemporary Art, artist and curator, comments on working with Alisa: “We are glad to cooperate with Alisa Lisovskaia. From the very beginning, we were astonished by her professional approach to materials, ability to apply curatorial experience and unique knowledge gained while working with art institutions in Europe and the USA, as well as her vision of the relevance of NFT and new trends for the Russian market, in particular, the need for such knowledge for our students. When I first met Alisa, I was struck by her enthusiasm and a keen interest in aspiring artists, so I quickly responded to her offer to introduce students and applicants to new technologies in the art world. Alisa is well-versed in contemporary art and has expertise in the field of NFT and digital art, worked on a project for the New York company See.Me, developing a blockchain art marketplace, supervised online exhibition projects for the London gallery and promoted local emerging artists.”

Alisa has won a grant for an internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, where she was engaged in the development of alternative proposals for the Department of Education and Special Events Department during the pandemic which was critical for museums and galleries. At the same time, Lisovskaia was working on curatorial content for the permanent exhibition of the museum, researching for the ready to be opened exhibition Migrating objects: Art from Africa, Oceania and America.

Read more:

Marusia Makhmutova: flamboyant fashion photographer and collage artist

Irina Voloshinovskaya: a poetess who continues the meditative-philosophical line of Russian poetry

Kseniia Fleisher: artist exploring the depth of human emotions