Victoria Kosheleva (Russian, born )

Timeline

1989
Born in Moscow
Victoria graduated from the Surikov Art Institute and subsequently moved to Paris, where she re-evaluated her academic skills and knowledge. In her search for a personal approach, she became absorbed in her own world of thoughts and feelings. At the same time, the artist retained her focus on the picturesque qualities of her works: technique remained a key criterion for her when assessing works of art.
Victoria Kosheleva’s figurative paintings are imbued with elements of surrealism. Her works recall labyrinths of the unconscious. On a compositional level, setting out the subject on several planes and deepening the space of the canvas, she creates a window, a portal into another world. This world consists of recollections and fanciful imagination of images and landscapes taken out of context. The Eastern mystical and almost cinematographic images in her pictures evoke a sense of déjà vu in the spectator. Victoria says: “For me contact with the audience is important—viewers should feel that they are joint participants and joint creators of the work. My works always contain an elusive component. This is the gap that the spectator may fill with his or her own experiences. And this leads to a dialogue where the picture accumulates additional meanings. The objective of any art is to provide the spectator with an opportunity to find in the work something that is close and understandable to them in particular.” In Kosheleva’s works the perspectives of houses, swimming pools, mountains and palm trees hint at some place that cannot be found on any map. This kind of mingling of spaces represents a conscious departure from any linking of the action to a place, and a protest against any and all boundaries. The colours in the pictures are also vested with symbolism. The painful ochre, heavy dark reds and poisonous violet transmit a state of alarm and instil terror. Meanwhile, the white, golden yellow, grey, sky blue, and pink, used most often in pictures with Eastern motifs (Golden Boy, Fata Morgana) create the sensation of enveloping matter and air transcending the canvas.
Victoria Kosheleva creates a different reality in which the marine flora mingles with fauna where the substances she has imagined reside. One of them—a humanlike character with an elongated nose—is encountered in one picture after another, and might possibly be a self-portrait of the artist. Its presence changes attitudes to the image, the spectator no longer simply looks at it and assesses; one gains the sensation that someone is looking back from the picture at the spectator in response. The journey of this character is linked to a story in the spectator’s imagination, while the exhibition is transformed into a comic or the storyboard of a film, with the subject matter prompted by the titles of the works.
Victoria Kosheleva lives and works in Moscow and Paris.

Exhibitions

2018
HORS-CADRE, Bastille Design Center, Paris, France
2018
Cabinet Da-End, Da End Gallery, Paris, France
2017
Visions. Triumph gallery, Moscow, Russia (solo)
2017
Child's Mith. The new wing of Gogol House, Moscow, Russia (solo)
2017
Mystical Enviroment. Garage Gallery, Nikolina gora, Moscow, Russia (solo)
2017
Seasickness. Frangulyan Gallery, Paris, France (solo)
2016
Fatamorgana. NII x Alpbau, Moscow, Russia (solo)
2016
Atlas. Foundation Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantin Sorokin, Moscow, Russia (solo)
2016
New space. Center of modern culture SMENA, Kazan, Russia
2016
New space. Foundation Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantin Sorokin, Moscow, Russia
2016
Mistakes space. Triumph Gallery, Ground Peschanaya, Moscow, Russia
2016
Salon. Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
2015
(UP) Rooted. Cite Des Art, Paris, France
2015
The ship travel through time and way. Academy of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
2015
Open call. Cite Des Arts, Paris, France
2015
Open call. Cite Des Arts, Paris, France (solo)
2014
Time forward?! Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
2014
The intersection of parallels, The New Tretyakov gallery Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
2013
Charity exhibition. High Line hospital in Baltimore, Baltimore, USA
2013
Oman Art. International Art Festival, Muscat, Oman
English (US)

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