BIO

Named "world’s sexiest philologist" by The New Yorker.

Marina Orlova (b. Arzamas, USSR) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice interrogates the intersection of the body, power, and cultural inheritance. Transitioning from her early career as the creator of the viral educational platform HotForWords, she now explores how religious, political, and commercial systems regulate femininity and autonomy.

Working across large-scale mixed media, drawing, and performance, Orlova treats the body as a contested site where devotion and spectacle collide. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg, Wired, The New Yorker, Der Spiegel. In 2023, her painting Birthing a Bomb won First Prize at the London Art Biennale.

She lives and works in California.

Contact: marina@hotforwords.com