Svetlana Marich is a curator, writer, and contemporary art expert based in London. She graduated from Moscow State University in 2008 with an MA in Journalism. While doing her PhD she created and taught a course on alternative media at Moscow State University, which explored the influence of subcultures on new forms of media. She also worked as the poetry editor of Desillusionist Magazine.

In 2008 she co-organized, along with Albert Beneau Gallery, Paris, the “China, Forward!” exhibition in Moscow and was appointed head of Phillips auction house in Russia. Marich worked on the third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, curated by Jean Hubert Martin (2009) and the fourth Biennale with Peter Weibel (2011).

In 2014 Marich moved to London to serve as worldwide deputy chairman at Phillips auction house, a position which she held until 2023. Concurrently, Marich also curated and produced exhibitions. Her projects include Zaha Hadid’s retrospective in 2015 and Anselm Kiefer’s solo show in 2017, both at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. In 2018 she curated Evgeniy Antufiev’s exhibition “When art became part of the landscape,” Part II at the Sergei Konenkov Memorial Studio-Museum and Part III at the Multimedia Art Museum Moscow (Innovation Prize nomination; Kandinsky Prize for the Best Prize of the Year winner), followed by Antufiev’s special project for Manifesta 12 in Palermo.

In 2018, Marich launched Future Talks, a series of talks with artists and academics at 180 Strand exploring the future of subjects such as family, community, surveillance, technology, work, and leisure.
In 2018, she founded Malevich, a platform to support artists by producing artworks and exhibitions in collaboration with galleries and museums. In 2023, Malevich also established an art advisory offshoot focusing on private museums. In 2024, Marich launched PHOTONIA, an art and media production company.

svetlana@malevich.io

Leida Pello is based in Helsinki, Finland and is in charge of managing Malevich platform's different projects. She graduated from University for the Creative Arts (Epsom, UK) in 2015 with a First Class BA(Hons) in Fashion Journalism. Leida worked in the fashion industry prior to joining Phillips Auction House (London) in 2016 and has worked in the art world ever since. Leida has experience of numerous auctions and private art sales, and has organised events around the world.

leida@malevich.io