Alina Shimova at MORA Museum
(JERSEY CITY, NJ) — MORA Art Museum presented Equilibrium, a multi-part exhibition that ran from February 21-26, 2026, bringing together photography, sculpture, jewelry, and contemporary painting within a single curatorial framework. Opening receptions were held February 21-22.
While the main hall featured Michael Ezra’s solo exhibition Photography to Sculpture, the group show introduced a range of contemporary voices, including Yelena Kimelblat (Burlap Collection – Farm), Sara Pisheh (Jewelry), Alexander Dudorov, and Alina Shimova.
Shimova, a Russian-born, Miami-based contemporary figurative painter, presented works from her New Totems series. Her practice combines classical training with symbolism, spiritual references, and anthropomorphic imagery, often using animal figures as stand-ins to explore identity, power, vulnerability, and the tension between human and natural worlds.
"I Got the Power" by Alina Shimova
The installation emphasized contrast and atmosphere. Classic Ganesha was displayed as a standalone piece, while I Got the Power and Bear With the Cigar were presented as a paired composition. Set against deep-toned walls and framed in black, the works gained a heightened sense of drama and focus.
Rather than using anthropomorphism as a playful device, Shimova treats it as a structural language. A bear in a leather jacket or a stylized reptilian figure becomes less about character and more about projection - a way to look at contemporary identity from a slight distance.
Her background adds another layer to the work. Trained under Russian painter Mikhail Satarov and with a foundation in fine art restoration, Shimova brings a level of technical precision that sits in tension with the contemporary styling of her subjects. Having lived in Casablanca, Cairo, Nice, and London, her visual language draws from multiple cultural references without settling into one.
The exhibition as a whole moved between disciplines and scales - from Ezra’s sculptural photography to wearable works by Pisheh and material-driven pieces by Kimelblat - while maintaining a shared focus on form, transformation, and presence.
For Jersey City, Equilibrium functioned less as a single narrative and more as a layered encounter: different practices, different mediums, but a consistent attention to how contemporary artists construct meaning through form.
For Shimova, the exhibition marked an important step - her first time showing work in a museum setting. It gave the work a different kind of context and visibility, placing it within a more established contemporary art space.
"Bear With the Cigar" by Alina Shimova
