Born in Voronezh, in the 1970s and 1980s Svetlana was part of the Moscow unofficial art milieu. In 1988, she emigrated to New York (USA) together with her husband and collaborator, artist Igor Kopystiansky. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, including the 9th Sydney Biennale (1992), the 22nd São Paulo Biennial (1994), the 4th Istanbul Biennial (1995), the 4th Lyon Biennial (1997), the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial (1997), and Documenta 11 (Kassel, 2002).
