Not a Child’s Exhibition

In the exhibition “Not a Children’s Exhibition,” the artists Valeria Salnikova and Liliya Valeeva erase the boundary between naïveté and seriousness and transform the habitual view of reality, freeing the viewer from imposed stereotypes and fears. The child’s world is a world of open emotionality, of immediate joy; it is a realm of illogical connections, impossible laws, new myths. The authors have attempted to carry these principles onto the “unchildlike” plane of adult perception.

The naïve images in Valeria Salnikova’s works vividly reflect the artist’s creative method, at the heart of which lies a synthesis of diverse textures and forms with an interpretation of cultural and historical heritage. Painting created on untreated canvas is associated with naturalness and immediacy and conveys the author’s genuine, unfeigned impressions of the material she uses. The ground appears before the viewer in its original state, allowing Valeria to communicate her sense of the world, in which any events, whether positive or negative, are lived through with gratitude and a thirst for life.

Liliya Valeeva’s aim is for the images of classical art to resonate anew within contemporary art. In her works the artist turns to the cultural heritage of the past, reinterpreting the masterpieces of the Renaissance and of the Pre-Raphaelites. This homage to artists of earlier epochs underscores the high value, the timelessness, of their mastery and of their contribution to the development of art.

About the artists:

Valeria Salnikova is a contemporary Russian artist working in a unique authorial manner. A participant in numerous exhibitions and fairs in Russia and abroad, including Miami, Venice, Berlin, and Paris. A resident of Kvartira S.

What matters most to Valeria is to share positivity and to infect others with it, to show that taking joy in everything around us is pleasant and beautiful. In her works the artist asserts the principle of the “pink prism,” which is meant to change the perception of surrounding reality. A gravitation of the images toward a planar treatment began to appear already during her years of study — her painting instructor shaped a distinctive manner of the artist, characterized by a departure from volume. The contours of the figures focus the viewer’s attention on the composition, inviting a visual study of flowing lines that possess a willful, energetic character and an inconstant thickness — everything comes together in a generative chaos of feeling.

Liliya Valeeva is a contemporary Russian artist with an academic education from the Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry. Since 2011 she has been a member of the International Art Foundation. A participant in numerous exhibitions and auctions. A teacher. She created her own brand of custom clothing and accessories, LILYA CUSTOM.

Renaissance art is recognized by the contemporary world as an ideal of beauty and spirituality, an inexhaustible source for reflection on what is most important and valuable. Turning to this artistic heritage, Liliya defines the moral and aesthetic landmarks that today become more and more necessary to us.