Sonja
Yakovleva
Sonja Yakovleva, REIZKLIMA, Installation View, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin, 2025
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was born in Potsdam (DE) in 1989. She lives and works in Frankfurt am Main (DE).
Yakovleva works in papercuts, a historically domestic, female-coded medium she repurposes as a tool for sharp social critique, often expanding it into room-filling installations. Drawing on the visual worlds of the internet, popular culture, pornography, as well as personal and collective narratives, she creates complex pictorial spaces in which fairy tales, mythologies, and social reality overlap and intersect. Her engagement with art historical traditions, contemporary visual culture, and societal power structures forms a distinctive artistic practice that brings together formal innovation and critical engagement. Alongside her solo practice, Yakovleva cofounded the collectives Römische Votzen and Kulturvotzen TV (KVTV), disrupting the art world not only through online critique but also through public actions. Feminism, for Yakovleva, is inseparable from radicality: it shapes her choice of medium and content, her public presence, and a language of self-empowerment, often deliberately crude, that she and the collectives had already developed well over a decade before it entered the cultural mainstream. As a writer, Yakovleva contributes critical texts to Welt am Sonntag, among others, and published Soaplands (2024), pairing her visual work with her own writing. -
Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens, (GR)
Bachelor of Arts, Hochschule für Gestaltung, Offenbach am Main, (DE) -
2023 Atelierstipendium Instanbul, Hessische Kulturstiftung
2022 Stipendium Künstlerhilfe
2020 Neustart Kultur, Projektstipendium für KVTV Television, Stiftung Kunstfonds
2020 Arbeitsstipendium Stiftung Kunstfonds
Hessen innovativ neu Eröffnen, Hessische Kulturstiftung
2019 MMCA Residency Goyang, Artist in Residence Scholarship in Frankfurt
2015 Graduation Scholarship of the Dr. Marschner Foundation
2014 Price of the FAZit Foundation for graphic and illustration -
2025 Reizklima, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin (DE)
2024 Amazing 11 and other Stories, Museum Bensheim (DE)
2024 Who has the Power ? Striking Projects, Frankfurter Kunstverein (DE)
2023 Béstiaire d’Amour, Kunstraum Potsdam, Potsdam, (DE)
2023 Pattern Recognition (with Keith Haring), Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen (DE)
2022 TANGA TANGA!, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin, (DE)
2021 Good Vibrations, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin, (DE)
2020 Hallöchen, Robert Grunenberg, (DE)
2019 Major Pectoralis, Timber, Seoul, (KR)
2017 3. Stendaler Lichttage, Kreuzgarten Dom, Stendal, (DE)
2017 Red Roses Club (Aggro Fit), Saasfee Pavillon, Frankfurt am Main, (DE)
2016 Nature is always beautiful, Neuer Kunstverein, Giessen, (DE)
2013 Kunst in Kirchen, St. Gallus, Rodgau, (DE) -
2025 Vordemberge-Gildewart-Stipendium 4.0, Kunstmuseum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden (DE)
2025 The artist is naked, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, (DE)
2023 Pattern Recognition (with Keith Haring), Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen (DE)
2023 IMAGINE — 10 Unrealized Projects, Robert Grunenberg, (DE)
2022 TOUCH ME: Nudes from the Miettinen Collection, Kunstraum Potsdam, Potsdam, (DE)
2022 Dévoyé, Match Art Project, Istanbul, (TR)
2022 Exhausting Beauty, Kuba Paris, Bonn (DE)
2021 Type/Cast/Thrill., Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn, (EE)
2020 Farbe Figurativ, Städtische Galerie, Nordhorn, (DE)
2020 Bodylotion, ZELLER VAN ALMSICK, Viena, (AT)
2020 Sincere Intentions, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin, (DE)
2019 Der letzte Strohhalm, Atelier Frankfurt, Frankfurt, (DE)
2019 Facing the Flat World, MMCA Residency, Goyang, (KR)
2019 Die Römischen Votzen & Klitclique, Arge Kultur, Salzburg, (AT)
2018 Wiesbaden Biennale, Die Römischen Votzen Hinterland, Wiesbaden, (DE)
2018 Losing my Virginity, Robert Grunenberg, Berlin, (DE)
2018 DGTL FMNSM, European Centre for the Arts, Hellerau, (GE)
2017 Good mourning / Happy ending, Kressmann-Halle, Offenbach am Main, (DE)
2017 Die Römischen Votzen, Parkhaus WK16, Frankfurt am Main, (DE)
2017 Good to talk, Berghain Kantine, Berlin, (DE)
2016 Chicken blood, Off-Space Korrekt, Frankfurt am Main, (DE)
2015 The land after the rainbow, LOTTE / Kunstverein Stuttgart Saloon Krawall, Kampnagel, Hamburg, (DE)
2014 Glass art club, Elaginpark, St. Petersburg, (RU)
2013 Life fleisch, Preview Art Fair, Berlin, (DE)
2013 Fumetto – Int. Comix-Festival, Luzern, (CH)
2012 Scherben bringen Glück, Kunstverein Familie Montez, Frankfurt am Main, (DE)
2011 New works, Galerie Bestregarts, Frankfurt am Main, (DE)
2009 Liebesschläuche, Festival der jungen Talente, Offenbach am Main, (DE) -
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart (DE)
Kunstpalais Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf (DE)
the Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen (DE)
LBBW Collection, Stuttgart (DE)
Klingspor Museum, Offenbach (DE)
Florian Peters-Messer Collection, Viersen (DE)
Miettinen Collection, Berlin (DE). -
2025 Zwei außergewöhnliche Ausstellungen im Museum Wiesbaden, Feuilleton Frankfurt
2024 Monumentale Scherenschnitte zerstören repressive Frauenbilder, Bergsträßer Anzeiger
2024 Artist Portrait – Sonja Yakovleva,ttt titel thesen temperamente
2024 Die Bilderflut trainierter Körper – Sonja Yakovleva,Frankfurter Allgemeine
2024 Sonja Yakovleva und Gintarè Sokelytè im Frankfurter Kunstverein,Frankfurter Allgemeine
2024 Sonja Yakovleva: hineingeschnitten und deutlich gemacht, journal Frankfurt
2023 Sonja Yakovleva im Kunstraum Potsdam – Das Lustprinzip scharf geschnitten,Tagesspiegel PNN
2023 Mit der Schere erzählt – Künstlerinnengespräch mit Sonja Yakovleva, Klingspor Museum Offenbach
2022 Wir wollten festhalten, was wir langweilig und scheiße fanden, Schirn Mag
2022 Darum wirft eine russische Künstlerin ihren Pass ins Klo, hessenschau
2021 Pop-folklore tricksters smashing stereotypes, Arterritory
2021 Nägel mit Köpfchen: Wenn Fingernägel zur Ausstellungsfläche werden, Gallerytalk
2020 It’s a Molotov Cocktail Revolution Baby, International FRÄULEIN issue 01/2020
2020 Wider den Heiligen Ernst des Kunstbetriebs, FAZ
2020 Insta-Watchlist: Sonja Yakovleva, Monopol Magazin für Kunst und Leben
2018 Fabulieren mit den Römischen Votzen, Monopol Magazin für Kunst und Leben
2018 Rerscherschiere un Aufarbeide, Das Wetter # 16 – Magazin für Text und Musik
2017 Wir sind männer- und frauenfeindlich, Monopol Magazin für Kunst und Leben
ABOUT
Sonja Yakoleva, Bro Bad I, 2025, Papercut, paper: 27 1/2 x 39 3/8 in, 100 x 70 cm, frame: 107 x 77 cm
Sonja Yakovleva at Kunstmuseum Wiesbaden, 2025
Sonja Yakovleva, Book of Constitutions, 2023, Papercut, 320 x 700 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Legendäre Wiedereröffnungsparty im Pony Club nach Übernahme durch ein Szene-Gastronominnen Trio, 2025, Papercut, paper: 63 x 47 1/4 in, 160 x 120 cm, frame: 167 x 127 cm
Sonja Yakovleva
Sonja Yakovleva, Grüße von der Insel Sylt, 2025, Papercut, paper: 38 5/8 x 94 1/2 in, 98 x 240 cm, frame 110 x 250 cm
Sonja Yakovleva Mykonos, 2025m Papercut and Gouache on paper paper 15 3/4 × 23 5/8 in 40 x 60 cm, frame 42 x 62 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Amor, 2023, Paper cut 50 × 70 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, A Pregnant Lobster Lady, 2025, Papercut, paper: 70 78 × 32 1/4 in, 180 x 82 cm, frame 188 x 90 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Der Perlentanga, 2023 Paper cut 50 x 40 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Tanga Tanga 17-67, 2023, Papercut, 234 x 568 cm
Sonja Yakovleva Mykonos, 2024, Gouache on paper and paper cut, 40 × 60 cm
Sonja Yakovleva Harpyie, 2023, Paper cut, 100 x 70 cm (sheet)
Sonja Yakovleva, Boat Trip, 2021, Papercut, 100 x 80 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Valeska Gert Ziegenstall, 2025, Papercut, paper: 63 x 47 1/4 in, 160 x 120 cm, frame 167 x 127 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, OnlyFans, 2021, Papercut, 80 x 60 cm
Sonja Yakovleva
Sonja Yakovleva, Im Hotelzimmer, 2020, Paper cut 80 x 60 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, We are family, 2020, Paper cut, 150 x 110 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Höschen, 2021, Papercut, 210 × 104,5 cm (10 frames)
Sonja Yakovleva, Höschen Nr. 40, 2022, Papercut, 45 × 55 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Naked Boat, 2025, Papercut, paper: 23 5/8 x 31 1/2 in, 60 x 80 cm, frame 67 x 87 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Höschen, 2022, Papercut, 45 × 55 cm, framed each
Sonja Yakovleva, Poolparty, 2020, Paper cut, sheet: 80 × 60 cm
Sonja Yakovleva
Sonja Yakovleva
Sonja Yakovleva
Sonja Yakovleva, Der Billardtisch, 2022 Papercut, 30 x 40 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Die Zebrachaiselongue, 2022 Papercut, 30 x 40 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Feierabend, 2022, Paper cut, 30 × 40 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Das Hotelzimmer, 2022, Papercut 40 x 30 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Emily in Paris, 2022, Papercut, 100 × 80 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Poledance, 2022, papercut 80 x 60 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Kinky Boys & Bad Girls II, 2022, papercut, 80 cm
Sonja Yakovleva, Kinky Boys & Bad Girls I, 2022, papercut 120 cm Ø
Sonja Yakovleva, Work out for one, 2022, Papercut, 100 × 80 cm
Sonja Yakovleva
Sonja Yakovleva
Artists: Sonja Yakovleva Photo by: Ivan Murzin 25.10.2022
