"GLOBAL CULTURAL RESTORATION & da AWAKENING of HUMANKIND are my GUIDING LIGHT..."
MARU$YA KAZAKOVA aka BAБAЯGA [BABAJAHGA]
is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans contemporary art, fashion, performance, and ritual, incorporating intuitive and healing modalities as integral components of her work.
Born in the $oviet Union, she carries $lavic–$iberian roots that deeply inform her spiritual and artistic language. Raised in post-$oviet $iberia, and later moving through Moscow, London, and New York, her trajectory traces a layered cultural geography that continues to shape the core of her work and identity.
Kazakova's earlier project, JAHNKOY, established her as an internationally recognized voice through a body of work centered on global cultural restoration, racial equity, and the reactivation of traditional craft within contemporary practice. Moving fluidly between fashion, installation, and performance, the project examined identity, displacement, and collective memory, positioning the garment as both artifact and narrative. The work gained international visibility through exhibitions and collaborations, and was recognized by institutions including the LVMH Prize and Forbes 30 Under 30, with ongoing support from organizations such as the CFDA and PUMA.
Artist's current body of work, developed under the name BAБAЯGA [BABAJAHGA], marks a conceptual and spiritual shift toward reindigenization and the reclamation of ancestral knowledge as a living, evolving force. Expanding beyond object-making into ritual and performance Kazakova creates immersive works and experiences that function as carriers of memory, transformation, and transmission. Her practice includes acrylic paintings incorporating textile and collage, one-of-a-kind garments, sacred objects, and performative works, bridging street and vernacular expressions with sacred languages and proposing art as a site of activation—where material, gesture, and presence converge to reconfigure relationships between body, identity, and collective consciousness. Her work continues to evolve through site-specific installations, ceremonial practices, and performative works that engage audiences in processes of collective remembrance and transformation.
EXPLORE
THE REALMS
FASHION
Fashion functions as a living language within Kazakova’s practice, where the garment becomes both artifact and narrative. Working with ancient textiles, mass-produced materials, and found objects, the artist upcycles, reconstructs, and creates one-of-a-kind forms that carry memory, culture, identity, and transformation. Her work bridges traditional craft with contemporary street expression, dissolving boundaries between culture, clothing, sculpture, and performance. These garments are not only worn, but inhabited—as extensions of the body, the story, and the Spirit.
Alongside her independent practice, Kazakova collaborates with artisans, makers, and brands, engaging in processes of exchange that bring together traditional techniques and contemporary design. These collaborations extend her work across contexts, connecting cultural knowledge, material practice, and collective creation.
ART
Kazakova’s visual practice is centered in painting, incorporating textile, collage, and layered materials into the surface to create works that operate between material and symbolic realms. Working with acrylic and mixed media, she produces paintings, posters, and illustrative works that merge street-informed graphic language with symbolic and cultural references. Rooted in both ancestral knowledge and contemporary realities, her work engages questions of identity, society, and lived experience.
Bridging street vernacular with sacred symbolism, Kazakova has developed a distinct visual language that integrates ancient symbols with a hybrid Russian–English idiom and expressive mark-making. Her compositions often feature faces - masks—futuristic yet ancient spirit-guides that emerge through the work, speaking to the present moment while carrying echoes of ancestral realms. Through this approach, her paintings operate as both personal and collective commentary, reflecting on current conditions while opening space for deeper awareness and questioning.
SPIRIT
Spirit forms the foundation of Kazakova’s work. Through ritual, ceremony, and intuitive processes, she creates spaces for transformation, reconnection, and remembrance. Working with voice, sound, breath, and presence, as well as divination tools such as cards, runes, and symbolic systems, she guides participants through embodied processes that engage both physical and energetic dimensions. Drawing from ancestral knowledge and lived experience, her work invites a return to inner alignment, awareness, and deeper connection. These experiences extend beyond the studio into immersive and participatory environments, where individual and collective processes unfold within a shared field.
GALLERY
The gallery presents a curated selection of Kazakova’s works across performance, exhibitions, installations, and editorial projects. Conceived as an evolving archive of public-facing practice, it brings together moments where her work enters space, audience, and context. Spanning live actions, constructed environments, and visual narratives, the gallery reflects the expanded field of her practice—where fashion, art, and ritual converge within lived experience.
