Mayya Kelova is a visual artist working primarily with photography. Her projects focus on personal stories of belonging, migration, and trauma and reflect on broader issues of cultural disruption and displacement. Through her practice, she explores the interplay between visibility and erasure, memory and imagination, myth and reality, creating a dialogue between constructed narratives and lived experiences.
She graduated from Docdocdoc — the School of Contemporary Photography in Saint-Petersburg, and currently studies at the PhMuseum MEDIAE 2025/26 online masterclass on transmedia storytelling.
Mayya is a Der Greif Guest Room Scholarship winner (2024), World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass nominee (2024), and a grant recipient from Centre de la Photographie Genève (2023). Since 2021, she is a member of Women Photograph.
Her work has been showcased in DomMuseum (2025) and Belvedere 21 Museum (2024) in Vienna, Austria, Central Asian Museum of Feminist and Queer Art (2022) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and 139 Documentary Center (2022) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, among others.
Born and raised in Turkmenistan, Mayya is currently based in Paris, France.
Selected Exhibitions
2025 Rencontres de la Photographie de Marrakech, group screening, Dakhla, Morocco
2025 Aryq Fest, Aqpan Film lab, group exhibition, Almaty, Kazakhstan
2025 CEU Visions, Visual Studies Platform, group exhibition, Vienna, Austria
2025 DomMuseum, “In the Spirit of Friendship” group exhibition, Vienna, Austria
2024 Belvedere 21 Museum, group screening, Vienna, Austria
2024 Unseen Perspectives, CEU Visual Studies Platform, group exhibition, Vienna, Austria
2024 Far from Home, group exhibition, Tbilisi, Georgia
2024 Pop-Up Group Exhibition, Tbilisi, Georgia
2022 MoFA+, Meykindik — Erkindik Exhibition, group exhibition, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
2022 139 Documentary Center, NeUyat Group Exhibition, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
2019 Moving Worlds, group screening, UK (various cities)
2018 Researcher’s Night, Budapest, Hungary
2018 Festival of Migrant Film, group screening, Slovenia
2018 Art IN Academia, group screening, Budapest, Hungary
Awards, Grants & Recognitions
2025 PhMuseum MEDIAE 2025/26 Online Masterclass on Transmedia Storytelling, scholarship recipient, IT
2025 Rencontres de la Photographie de Marrakech, finalist, Dakhla, Morocco
2025 PhMuseum Photography Grant, portfolio review recipient, IT
2024 Der Greif Guest Room Scholarship Winner, DE
2024 Athens Photo Festival 2024, shortlist, GR
2024 World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass Nominee, Amsterdam, NL
2023 Magnum x Textile Exchange, shortlist
2023 Photography Festival in Capri — XV edition, Winner, Single Image Category, IT
2023 Helsinki Photo Festival, shortlist, FI
2023 Centre de la Photographie Genève, grant & mentorship, CH
2021 Nikon-NOOR Academy, selected participant
2019 VII workshop, scholarship recipient, BA
2016 NOOR-Nikon masterclass, scholarship recipient, KZ
Education
2025-26 PhMuseum MEDIAE 2025/26 Online Masterclass on Transmedia Storytelling, IT
2019-22 Docdocdoc, School of Modern Photography, Saint Petersburg, RU
2016-17 Central European University, MA Legal Studies, Budapest, HU
2008-13 American University in Bulgaria, BA Journalism, BU
Workshops & Art Residencies
2023 Centre de la Photographie Genève, six-months mentorship, CH
2023 Black Sea Poti Art House Residency, Poti, GE
2021 Nikon-NOOR Academy with Sanne De Wilde, Pep Bonet, and Jon Lowenstein
2019 VII agency workshop with Sara Terry, Linda Bournane, Nichole Sobecki, Sarajevo, BA
2016 Nikon-NOOR Academy with Benedicte Kurzen, Sebastian Liste, and Yuri Kozyrev, Almaty, KZ
Artist Talks & Other Initiatives
2024 Artist Talk, Festival for Human, Tbilisi, GE
2024 Mediation, Pop-UP Group Exhibition, Tbilisi, GE
2022 Author’s excursions, art mediations at the NeUyat Group Exhibition, Tashkent, UZ
2021 Guest Speaker, “Women in Various Fields, ” open dialogue by the EU Delegation to Turkmenistan
2020 Storytelling through documentary photography, online seminar, TM
2020 Artist talk, University of Central Asia, KG
2019 Speaker: Creating Multimedia Content for Positive Social Change, World Learning Alumni TIES, Almaty, KZ
Publications & Press
2024 Der Greif X MPB: Behind the Image with Mayya Kelova
2024 Der Greif, Guest Room selection, project Forgiving
2023 Sola Journal, interview
2023 95MAG, project review, Something borrowed, something red
2023 Broad Magazine, publication of the project Forgiving
2023 Your Local Newsstand, interview
2023 ArtDoc Photography Magazine, publication of the project Forgiving
2023 L'Œil de la Photographie Magazine, publication of the project Forgiving
2023 FK Magazine, publication of the project Forgiving
2023 Nowhere Diary, publication of the project Forgiving
2020 VII Academy, Amplifying Student Voices, Photographing Life in Times of Pandemic
2016 Novaya Gazeta, The Last Emperors, group publication