Marina Pchelyakova

Marina Pchelyakova was born on February 9, 1995 in Ulyanovsk. From 2013 to 2019, she studied at the Moscow State University of Printing (formerly Polygraph) at the Faculty of Graphic Arts. In 2018, she became a laureate at the International Book Illustration Competition “THE IMAGE OF A BOOK”, and a year earlier she was shortlisted for the BoekieBoekie “Start Award” in Rotterdam. In 2023, she became a participant of the Lami-genolini art res-idency in Italy.
The artist lives and works in Moscow.

This is how the artist explains her art: “A special place in my artistic practice is given to memories. Borrowing stories from childhood, personal experiences and shocks, I observe how selective memory is. I am also interested in minor events that are not colored by a strong emotional experience: having recreated them in detail, I cultivate full-fledged images from them. However, these interpretations are not an end in themselves, but an opportunity for dialogue with the viewer: it is important not just to tell my story, but to leave space for the story of another. Through the plots and images of my works, I invite the viewer to consider and remember himself, to discover a connection with his own past, to feel that he is not alone in his experiences.

The real story that exists in my memory becomes an impulse to the emergence of an alternative plot on canvas — with fictional details, thought-out images and new meanings. I imagine what this different world would look like, independent of the temporal context, where different events and characters coexist. This helps me not only to explore and experience inner pain or trauma, but let them go to give place to a new experience — special and beautiful, and discover that because of it we are who we are.

Intentionally distorted forms and plot layering hidden in the brightness of expression and color forms of my art-works help me to leave the viewer a space for free interpretation and speculation. I borrow some artistic tech-niques from naive and abstract art, but I do not limit myself to them, as well as I explore painting as a tool for a new reading of familiar things and phenomena.”

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023
Separation. Cube. Moscow, Moscow

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023
Room 508. Marco Polo Hotel, Moscow
Sturm Group. Arts Square Gallery, Saint Petersburg

2018
Beijing International Book Fair. China
Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava. Slovakia

Author’s works