Interview With Surrealist Artist Anna Dianova
When did you first discover your talent for art?
I picked up a brush for the first time when I was four years old. Since childhood, I knew my calling was to be an artist. From a young age in school, I was taught drawing, painting, sculpture, and history of art, choreography, acting, piano, the violin, and literature. I competed in my national competitions as a child also. This motivated me to move forward. After graduating from the professional art school -I entered the National Academy of Fine Arts on the faculty of painting and continued with studies conceptual art studies at Kiev Academy of Media Arts.
What experiences have inspired your work as an artist?
I took my inspiration from the Art and Film industry, the theater industry, traveling such as visiting the most important places in the world for Arts like Pinchuk Art Center in Kiev, Ukraine, The Louvre in Paris, Ermitage Saint Pétersbourg, Art Basel in Miami and The Armory Art Show in New York.
Who has been your most influential teacher?
The biggest influence has been my friend Arsen Savadov. He has opened my eyes to help me understand the real function of culture and art.
Do you still have your first ever piece of art that you created? If so, what does it look like, what was the motivation behind it?
The first painting that I ever created was when I was 4 years old, and I clearly remember how I got the understanding of color and where it should be placed on the canvas. To this day, I still take inspiration from that first ever painting.
When did you discover your style of metamodernism? Were you always fascinated with the futuristic twists?
I identify and my art style is as a conceptual and figurative fine art painter. I reinterpreted history and creating a new futurological mythology. Discovering emotionally charged topics, fixed upon personal motifs and experimentation. . Metamodernism – is a characteristic of cultural responses to recent global events such as climate change, the financial crisis, political instability, and the digital revolution.
For example, after participating in the Economic Forum in Ukraine Kiev in 2018, with a project Renaissance 2.0 made in Augmented Reality with Blockchain Art Hachaton. I visited multiple lectures from providing specialists, futurists, financial advisors, and developers of artificial intelligence, which gave me a new perspective on my art philosophy. This project was implemented with the help of VR technology: opened up futurological topics and searched for answers to questions about what the future will look like with the development of artificial intelligence, robot building, and technologies that are already actively involved in the daily routine of our society and continue to develop.
Do you believe history repeats itself and that is why you like to play on that with your art?
I take inspiration from history to recreate events in a contemporary way and create a futuristic vision. I do believe that human nature doesn’t change, but there is something mysterious behind all of this knowledge that human existence has. For example in my latest painting that belongs to Eddie Mullon who is the software developer and investor of Fashion GPS
Do all of your art pieces have a special meaning to you?
Each painting, as well as a whole collection, has a story behind it which of course all have a special meaning to me. As an artist, it is my responsibility to convey a story on the blank canvas in an understandable visual language which the purpose to educate and admire.
Have you ever been so attached to a piece that it was hard to sell?
Each piece is very special to me… And each piece is about finding its owner. It’s a journey full of ambitious projects and unforgettable moments of enlightenment!
In 2017 you held an exhibition on women’s rights…did your profits go to charity? How much exposure did you receive for this exhibit? Why are you passionate about this issue? That same year you revealed “White Ribbon” what was this piece about? Why did you feel compelled to share it then?
White Ribbon is a NGO aimed to break the taboo on domestic violence in post-Soviet countries and to support Hague Convention reform in the domestic violence aspect. Together with White Ribbon and head of the organization Veronika Mudra we have created a range of events and creative management. As a woman and an artist, I feel honored to speak from a Ukrainian audience and to support the female community. On December 6, the Ukrainian Parliament, with the support of the League for the Protection of Women’s Rights, we opened the exhibition “Harmony of Equals”, dedicated to the global initiative “16 Days Against Violence” and the International Human Rights Day. The exhibition “White Ribbon” by artist Anna Dianova was inspired by the activities of the NGO and wished that the exhibition “Harmony of Equals” would help reduce conflicts in Ukrainian society. Then together with my sister Alina Dianova who is a film director,have created a range of promotional video, ads and short films for White Ribbon and Art Ramus campaigns.
Source: The Art Insider
