ARINA

Profile                                                                                                                                                       

Russian-born British artist ARINA,based in London, widely exhibits her paintings all over the world and is recognized with a number of awards in the UK, USA and Europe. Her paintings have been featured at venues such as the Saatchi Gallery and Mall Galleries in London, Venice Arsenale in Italy and many others in New York, Miami, Venice, Rome, Hamburg, Marseille, Buenos-Aires etc. 
Her works are in private collections worldwide, including Gustav Metzger private collection. ARINA
studied at the Central Saint Martins College of Art having graduated with Master’s degree (MA) in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts London. ARINA is a full-member of the Society of Women Artists (SWA) in the United Kingdom and the Portrait Society of America (PSA).  Her works, exhibitions and achievements are all documented on her website www.ARINA.uk.com

Education

2007 - 2008    
MA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London

2006 – 2007  BA Fine Art (Painting) Central Saint Martins College of Arts, University of the Arts London

2005 – 2006  Foundation Studies (Painting), Merit Certificate, Central Saint Martins College of Arts, University of the Arts London                                                                                                                            
1985 – 1987    Art School (part-time), Fine Art, Distinction Certificate, Russia

Prizes and Awards                                                                                                                                        

Winner of Strokes of Genious: Best of Drawing 2011, USA

Art of Giving National Art Competition-2010, Finalist, the Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

2-d Prize at ‘Is it Fine Art? Challenging Traditions’, Pen and Brush Gallery, New York, USA, 2011

LICC-2010, London International Creative Competition, Winner for a Trophy at Awards Ceremony at Soho Theatre, London                

Arte Laguna Art Prize 2010, The Best Foreign Artist Mention, Venice Arsenale, Italy                                                                

Special Prize Gagliardi Art Gallery,  Special Prize Fiorella Pieri Contemporary Art Gallery, Venice Arsenale, Italy

Best of 2010, Winner in Painting People/Today Life category, Marziart International Gallery, Hamburg, Germany

EXPO-29 Winner 2010, International Painting Competition, b.j.spoke gallery, New York, USA

ARTWORKinternational, Inc. finalist for the grant 2010

MFA Now Award Winner 2009, International Painting Competition, USA

First Place Award, Full Brush Exhibition 2009, Pen and Brush Gallery, New York, USA

Second Place in Portrait/Figure category, The Artist’s Magazine, USA,
International Painting Competition 2009

Face of National British Charity ‘Sue Ryder Care 2009’ , Art Liberating Lives Campaign

Anthony J. Lester Art Critic Award 2008, Mall Galleries, London, Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition, awarded by Lady Gabriella Windsor

Public Choice Prize 2008, National Open Art Competition, Chichester, UK

Visitor's Choice Award 2008, Cork Street Gallery, London, Annual Cork Street Open Art Competition

First Prize in Portrait/Figure category, The Artist’s Magazine, USA, Student’s International Competition 2008                   

The Brenda Landon Pye Portrait Prize 2008, London, Shortlisted for the Prize

                            

Selected exhibitions

SAATCHI GALLERY, London, Art of Giving 2010, with Banksy, Gavin Turk, Terry O’Neill, Peter
Blake,  Alexa Meade

Legende Celebrity Art 2010 with Art of Giving, Mayfair Gallery, London, with Terry O’Neill, Allan Warren

Venice Arsenale, Venice, Italy, Arte Laguna Art Prize 2010

b.j.spoke gallery, USA, New York, EXPO-2010

Mall Galleries, London, UK, Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition, 2008,
2009, 2010, 2011

Cork Street Gallery, London, UK, Annual Open Art Exhibitition, 2008, 2009, 2010

Marziart International Gallery, Hamburg, Germany, Best of 2010

Brighton University Gallery, Brighton, UK, Occidental Dimension, first event touring then to China

Marseille Project Gallery, Marseille, France, Futureproof-2010, Artist’s Portrait-2010, Housewarming-2008

Gallery Lilly Zeligman, Holland, Summer Show, 2010

The Pen and Brush Gallery, New York, USA, Fall Brush Exhibition-2009, Award Winners Artists – 2011, Is It Fine Art? -2011

Praxis Art International Gallery, Miami, USA, MFA Now Award Winner’s Exhibition, 2009

Mall Galleries, London, UK, Art Liberating Lives Exhibition, 2008, 2009, 2010

Brick Lane Bodhi Gallery, London, UK, Condensation, The Temperature is Rising, 2008, 2009

Posk Gallery, London, UK, Summer Edition, 2009

The RBSA Gallery, Birmingham, UK, The First Biennial RBSA Open Portrait Award, 2008

National Festival Theatre, Chichester, UK, The National Open Art Competition, 2008, 2009, 2010

The Art Club, Dover Street, London, UK,  Exhibition of Prizes Winners of National Open Art Competition, 2008

Pallant House Gallery and Museum, Chichester, UK, Prizes Winners of National Open Art Competition, 2008

MA Fine Art Final Degree Show 2008, Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts London, UK

The Brenda Landon Pye Portrait Prize 2008, Chelsea College of Art, London, UK

The Arts Gallery, Davies Street, London, XHIBIT-07, works have been selected by Tom Hunter,
2007

The Lethaby Gallery, London ,LANDMARKS 2006, Central Saint Martins College of Art, 2006

The Untitled Gallery, Throgmorton Street, London, All Together Art Show, 2006, 2007

Exhibition of BA and MA graduates of the University of Hertfordshire The Harlequin
Centre, 2005

Variety of exhibitions in Russia, 1986 – 1993, including Regional Exhibition at The Museum of Art, Russia

Publications

Deshoras, Performance catalogue, July 2011, Buenos-Aires, Argentina

ARINA, PoetsArtists Magazine, USA, October 2011, issue n.28, pages 36-39

Art of Giving 2010, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, catalogue

The Art of the Portrait, Journal of the Portrait Society of America, USA, December 2009, issue no.46, page 16 

Arte Laguna Art Prize 2009, Venice, Italy, catalogue

The Year's Best Art, essay by Tamera Lenz Muente, The Artist's Magazine, USA, December 2009, p. 54

Stand-out Students, The Artist's Magazine, USA (special 25-th Anniversary Issue), January/February 2009, p.54

A good reason to get arty, The Daily Mirror, UK, London, 2009, Monday, September 21, page 33

Artist Perfoms Emotions in Paint, Adam Cornell, The Maldon Standart, UK, Wednesday, April 15, 2009, p. 9

Saatchi Competition to uncover Art Idol  by Ben Hoyle, The Times, UK, London, 2007, Friday,
March 2, page 27

Occidental Dimension 2009, UK, Brighton, catalogue

Fringe MK, UK, Milton Keynes, catalogue, 2009

Saving Lives with Art, The Wandsworth Guardian, UK, London, 2009, Thursday, June 18

The Society of Women Artists , UK, London, catalogue 2008, 2009, 2010

First Biennal RBSA Open Portrait Award , UK, Birmingham, catalogue 2008

MFA Now Winners catalogue, USA, essay by Edward Lucy-Smith, 2008

Cork Street Open Art Exhibition , UK, London, catalogue 2008, 2009, 2010

Affordable Art Fair 2008, April , UK, London, catalogue

MA Chelsea Final Degree Show2008 , UK, London, catalogue

National Open Art Competition, Chichester, UK, Chicester, catalogue 2008  

Xhibit 07 catalogue 2007, University of the Arts London

Artist Statement

I suggest that my work is a kind ofperformance rather than traditional portraiture – I perform an image that inspired me, manipulating with my own face as an actress does to express what I want to convey onto my painting and documenting the process as an artist. I paint these transformed images on canvas depicting them as a ‘litmus-paper’ of inner, as a symbol of emotions and feelings or movements within the human spirit. I position the images in a middle of nowhere, without any recognizable signs of any given time or place, or any other particular characteristics, intentionally restricting myself with colours and using in my work the monochrome palette that enables me to provide anonymity to an image. My paintings may be associated with images from the art history, but I avoid any direct references - I only mark a trace and outline a hint what the images could have been related to.

The Red, which I use in my works, has a deep meaning for me. In many cultures ‘red’ means passion and love, in Tibetan philosophy it means connection with the Universe - connection with everyone and everything at the all levels of the entire world. In Russian language, particularly in folk’s fairy tales, often the word ‘red’ equates to the word ‘beautiful’. One of the worldly known Russian writers Fyodor
Dostoevsky has said ‘Beauty will save the World'. I believe that images and objects which have been created with passion can take an immense power that is sometimes found in religious art, the powerful energy that has an ability to alter one’s mental state and even transform reality.  All the artists are
responsible for every single brush stroke they produce within their creativity. We all create the world around us and all the artists are responsible in particular for what we are bringing to the world within our works. Beauty will save the world and Art is this powerful tool to bring the Beauty to the world - to save it.