MoCP - Darkroom 2023

Anna Shteynsleyger’s series Des Plaines (City of Destiny) is a contemplative examination of diasporic identity, reflecting on the artist’s relationship to home in the United States after she emigrated from Russia. Taken in both Russia and Illinois, the title derives from the official motto of the Chicago suburb where Shteynshleyger lived for five years. The images have an aura of questioning detachment and quiet observation, informed by Shteynshleyger’s experiences as an outsider, first as a Jewish woman in Russia, and later as a Russian émigré in the United States. 

Anna Shteynshleyger completed a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (1999) and an MFA from Yale University (2001). Her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Smart Museum of Art, Chicago; the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; and the International Center of Photography, NY, among many others. Shteynshleyger is a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship recipient (2009) and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

https://www.shteynshleyger.com/