Natasha Struchkova is a Russian artist and designer.
Struchkova graduated from the Moscow Institute of Architecture in 1993 and became one of the first Russian web designers. Her first creative projects in the late '90s were connected with the development of information technology, including the Internet and virtual reality programming languages. In 2000 she obtained a degree from the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Moscow. The ICA graduates formed the Summer art group that held a festival of street performances in 2000-2002.
In 2001, Natasha Struchkova, Maxim Ilyukhin and Mikhail Kosolapov founded the ABC group (Art Business Consulting). In their practice, the group explored the subject of office culture, the image of a mid-level manager. The participants created objects, installations, performances, photos and films, graphics and paintings. In 2004-2009 the ABC group ran their own art space, ABC Gallery, in Art Strelka, and in 2010-2012 they ran OFFICE Gallery in ARTPLAY. Struchkova started to paint in 2001.
In her paintings, Struchkova examines how the surrounding reality is formed and informed through information channels and modern technologies. In 2001–2012 she created her own 'pixel' painting by simulating computer graphics of the '90s. The concept is based on collaging popular media images. In 2009 Struchkova turned to the paintings of Russian artists: on her canvases she recreated their recognisable subjects and landscapes in LEGO details. The construction toys became a metaphor for the world in which all materials and objects had been replaced with universal plastic parts. Struchkova creates her sketches using computer software. By converting kilobytes into painting, using either pixels or a three-dimensional model as the draft for the image, Struchkova captures, in her own words, a strange state of matter: neither alive nor dead.
Natasha Struchkova's works have been exhibited at the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia), the State Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow, Russia), Hiroshima MOCA (Hiroshima, Japan), the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead, UK), Pinchuk Art Center (Kyiv, Ukraine). Struchkova's works can be found in the collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA) and private collections across the globe.