SVETLANA VALUEVA

Video by Olga Timonina, 2013

Svetlana Valueva was born in Moscow on October 24, 1966. From 1978 to 1985 she studied at the Moscow secondary art school named after V.I. Tomsky at the Institute named after Surikov. From 1987 to 1993 she studied at the Moscow State Institute of Art named after Surikov. In 1991 she had an internship in Germany, at the Stuttgard Academy of Arts, in the class of Professor Shafrat.

The artist's paintings are in private collections in Belgium, Germany, Japan, USA, England, France.

"You were born a whole century later," the teachers of painting at the Moscow State Art Institute said to Svetlana Valueva. Her works are imbued with the spirit of the refined romance of the "Silver" age, a style that is commonly called "Art Nouveau" in the West. The heroes of Svetlana Valueva's paintings are women, beautiful and unique, living in a fantasy world. The heroines of her paintings are women who are destined to live during the Silver Age. Some are real, others are a figment of the imagination, but they are all beautiful and unique.

"I have always loved to portray women. Sometimes some images were born in my imagination, sometimes I was attracted by real-life women. Each new face, so unique and inimitable, appeared at the beginning in my imagination, and then I depicted it on canvas."

Svetlana was born in Moscow and, as far as she can remember, has always drawn. At the age of eight, the girl got to an international exhibition in Cuba, where she received a gold medal. At the age of 9, she won the Grand Prix at the annual international children's drawing exhibition in Delhi. In 1977, a documentary film about outstanding Soviet artists was shown in all cinemas of the country, which told about Svetlana and her work. In the same year, her photo was placed on the front cover of the popular monthly magazine Sovetsky Soyuz.

The first personal exhibition of Valueva's works was held at the prestigious Moscow Gallery in 1993. Svetlana's paintings aroused great interest and were bought by a publisher from Japan. In 1995, Valueva, already a well-known artist, completed a series of works on ballet at the request of the Bolshoi Theatre. She lives and works in Moscow.

E-mail: info@hayhillgallery.com