Laura Bivolaru is a writer, educator, curator and visual artist. She has written for Archivo (Portugal), Art Monthly (UK), C4 Journal (UK), and Photography Influx (Romania), and her essay, In Defence of the Small Screen, was the winner of the Michael O’Pray prize in 2022. Her interests concern expanded approaches to photography, with a focus on the relationship between photographs, text, and moving image. She is a member of the artistic collective Revolv, who facilitates professional and educational opportunities for early-career artists in the UK. As an artist, Bivolaru has exhibited in Romania, Moldova, and the UK. Curatorial projects include Separation and Belonging (2015) at 5th Base Gallery, UK, Statement of Being (2019) at Deptford Does Art, UK, Semantics of the Shell (2023) at The Balcony, The Netherlands, and Photo50 Grafting: The Land and the Artist, London Art Fair, 2024. Bivolaru was also a Guest Lecturer on the Photography courses at UCA Farnham (2020), London College of Communication (2023), and University of Westminster (2023), and on BA Graphic Design at Kingston University (2022), as well as a workshop facilitator for East Meets West Masterclasses in 2021 and 2022. She is currently part of The Expanded Librarian at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge, a research project which investigates contemporary modes of collaborative image-text production.
In her practice, she explores tropes of postcommunist Eastern European identity that derive from the micro-environment of the family and extend to the nation. The home is seen as a transitional space between self and society, a site of negotiation where the quest for truth clashes with domestic myths. Through her own photographs, archival materials and moving image, she researches how time, history and the collective shape the individual.
She holds a First Class Honours BA Degree in Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster and an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art.
Contact: info@laurabivolaru.com