sandra zanetti        


Born in Chicago, Illinois, USA
Working between London, Sofia, & NYC
With ties to Paris, Berlin & Orlando, Fla.

I am an artist working across performance, text, sound, installation, and moving image. I was born into a set of absences that continue to shape my practice.

My work uses the process as a framework for constructing unstable systems of meaning, in which the body functions as both medium and site of inscription. Through repetition, ritual, and endurance-based actions, I explore how identity is formed, fractured, and rewritten through memory, fiction, and lived experience.

Drawing from underground theatre, devotional iconography, and dream logic, I construct environments in which gestures, objects, and personas operate as symbolic proxies. Recurring materials form an evolving iconographic alphabet, producing a shifting visual and performative language concerned with transformation, failure, and power dynamics.

Throughout my practice, I return to the tension between absence and belonging, and the ways narratives are assembled through violence, care, substitution, error, and projection. Rather than resolve, the work holds these conditions in motion, generating temporary structures of meaning under instability.

Education

2022-24           MA Fine Art (Distinction) - Central Saint Martins: University of the Arts London

2015-20           BFA Fine Art (Honors) - Concentration in Photography, University of Central Florida

2018                New Media/Culture Management, Paris College of Art

2019                Sonic Studies/Installation, Universität der Künste Berlin


Exhibitions, Awards & Residencies


2026        Bar Bella, Noiascape, London, UK (forthcoming)

              WWSIA, Figura, Sofia, Bulgaria (forthcoming)

              Three Legged Dog, Vishovgrad, Bulgaria (forthcoming)

              Constillations of Critical Bodies, Venice International Performance Art Week, Venice, Italy 

              LADA Evening of Performance, London, UK

              WTAR 20, Sofia, Bulgaria

              A Process in Three Acts, Galvani Galerie, Nürnberg, Germany

              THIS WORLD HURTS, Sofia Underground, Sofia, Bulgaria

              Live Art Ireland: In Between, Ireland, UK

              The Cow and I, Collateral Project of Kochi-Murazi Biennale, Forplay Society, Kochi, India



2025        GUILTY: An Afternoon of Performance, CONDITIONS, London, UK

              Feminist Futuristicas, Bulgarian Cultural Institute, Paris, France

              Live Art 10: Her Mess, 3 Rue Francais, Paris, France

              IN SHAMBLES: RAW CUT, Sofia Art Week, Sofia, Bulgaria

              ONE SHOT Screening, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK

              DIVERS, Conditions, London, UK

              Open Season, Cape Town, South Africa

              Майка Елизия: Игнис, Smolyan, Bulgaria

              WTAF Residency, Sofia, Bulgaria

              The Life and Death of Mother Elysia, SET, London, UK

              RELEASE, Eade Road Studios, London, UK

              Half Heard, Half Seen, CONDITIONS, Croydon, UK


2024         Bardo, NSF, Moskosel, Sweden

              NSF Residency, Moskosel Creative Lab, Moskosel, Sweden

              IN SHAMBLES: Please, I don’t want to fight anymore, Lethaby Gallery, London

              MAFA End of Year Show, Central Saint Martins, Kings Cross

              Splitting the Atom, 2, Brighton, UK

              Dinner with the Phlambards, Riposte, London, UK

              The Boxer, Spring Up, London, UK

              Practice Makes Perfect, Archway Annex, London, UK

              Sideshow, Lethaby Gallery, London, UK

              For the Sick and Poor, Kent,UK

              Hypermedia, Gravesend, UK

              To See What I Have Seen, Archway Annex Project Space, London, UK

              Publications, Lethaby Gallery, London, UK


2023        For Pierre, Open Studios, Central Saint Martins, London, UK

             Domesticada, Archway Annex, London, UK

             Telematic Distillation, La Salle, Singapore

             You Can Kind of Tell They Used To Be Here, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

             Aftermath, Archway Annex, London, UK

             Creature Fear, Æther, Sofia, Bulgaria

             All Things Lost Are Found, The Chainstore, London, UK   

             UAL International Postgraduate Scholarship

             Take an L, London, UK

             æther Residency and solo exhibition, Sofia, Bulgaria

          
2022         Watertower Decentralized, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

              Adjusted for Inflation, Kunstraum, Brooklyn, New York, USA

              Fish Factory Residency, Creative Centre of Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland

              ChaNorth Residency, Pine Planes, New York, USA

              Makerspace Community Giveback Fellowship, New York, New York 

              Urban Glass Scholarship for Neon Studies, Brooklyn, New York, USA



2021         Kunstraum Residency, Brooklyn, New York, USA

              How Do I Apply to Exhibit Here?, Topos Projects, London, UK 

              How Do I apply to Exhibit Here?, Tokio Galeria, Lima, Peru

              Can Serrat Residency, Grant, and Solo Exhibition, El Bruc, Spain

              The Petal That Falls First. forforfor, Orlando, Florida, USA

              ARV.I Artist in Residence, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

              Only Brush the Teeth You Want to Keep, Heerz Tooya, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

              Close but Somehow Far, Parkhaus15, Orlando, FL, USA

              Here & There, Window Room, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

              A Walk in the Industrial Park, Clocktower Studios, Chicago, IL, USA

              Walk and Talk, West Loop, Chicago, IL, USA

              RAI Film Festival, London, UK

              Micro Programa a Distancia, Barcelona, Spain




2020         Florida Biennial, Hollywood, Florida, USA

              MODIFY, Meno Parkas, Düsseldorf, Germany 

              KONTINUUM, Kleine Humboldt Galerie, Berlin, Germany

              1111 Gallery, Closed Door, Budapest, Hungary

              UNTIL Magazine Issue #4, Victoria, Canada

              Living Window, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

              NOTATIONS 43.8, Bergen, Norway (Online)

              MINT, me irl, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (Online)

              WR3D1NG D1GIT5, art in quarantine, Portugal (Online)

              Cityscape 2020, CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea



Artist Talks/Interviews/Publications

       
2026        Icons, Talk Magazine, Issue 2
 
             What Do You Mean?, Talk Magazine, Issue 2

             The Gift That Keeps On Giving, Publication




2025        Water Tower Arts Fest, Documentary

             The Life and Death of Mother Elysia, Independent Publication

             In Shambles, Please I Don’t Want to Fight Anymore, Independent Publication

             FIRE EXIT, Independent Publication

             Ruined, Talk Magazine, Issue 1




2024        Professionally Insane with Nika Senica

             This Cruel Temple (Collaboration), independent publication

             Sandra Zanetti In Conversation with Sandra Zanetti

             i’ve fallen into the deep sads and doubting reality, independent publication

             On A Roll, independent publication




2022        Meet the Artists, Creative Centre of Stöðvarfjörður, Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland

             Art Gab Podcast, Episode 33 — Sandra Zanetti, Portland, Oregon

              

2021        Kunstraum Residency Talks with Sandra Zanetti and Tiffany Jung

             Artist Talk, ARV.i, Vishovgrad, Bulgaria

             PDF @ Praksis, Oslo, Norway 

             KPISS RADIO, Craft Services, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA




2020        WEBRADIO, Le Bouquet Granvillais, Spécial USA, Normandie, France

             Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach | Institutions, Art and Culture Center/Hollywood