VALERIA KO

MOSCOW

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH VALERIA BELOW

What 3 words best describe you?

Stylish, talented, perseverance

What 3 words best describe your art?

Passion, colourful, honest

Can you describe your artistic process?

I’m watching movie or tv show, eating food before start working. 

What is art to you?

First of all it’s my job, I’m a full time freelancer. But at the same time art is a therapy for me. Every time I draw I forget my problems and let myself go. I feel happy every time I’m doing watercolours.

What do you hope people take away from your work?

I hope people take from my work a feeling of happiness and excitement. I want them to feel a little more open.

Social media plays such a big part in many artist’s lives but it’s also a heavily censored medium. How do you deal with that when you produce work that challenges the norm?

Somehow my work never broaches this bridge of censorship. I’ve never drawn dicks or vaginas. My work’s not about it. Of course a viewer can assume what’s going on in the painting but I never show the actual sex, just the excitement.

You wrote that social media gives people unreal expectations about you. Can you tell us more about that and how you deal with it?

Yes, unfortunately when people (we are talking more about men)  see the female artist who draws sexual scenes, they think that you are crazy and very open minded in sex in real life. It’s affected my private life a lot. Also, everyday I receive photos of dicks and sexual content in my DM in instagram.

What do your family & friends think of your work?

I’ve never drawn any vulgar or dirty things so my family and friends are absolutely fine with my art. My friends are very proud that I have publications in various magazines and that I’ve participated in exhibitions.

What are you currently working on?

I’m making a plan to live abroad. I’m looking for a place where I want to settle.

What’s your favourite piece of work to date and why?

For now my favourite piece is the mural I did in a cafe in Amsterdam. It’s the huge mural in the very centre of Amsterdam. I really love the city and I was happy and honoured to have left something big there.

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