Familiar Faces of Valeria Salnikova

Gallery “Kvartira S” and the Double B coffee shop chain present the exhibition Valeria Salnikova “Familiar Faces”.

Whom can one meet in a coffee shop in the heart of a metropolis? What will the face of a person at the next table tell us? What best conveys a person’s beautiful inner world? Answers to these and other questions can be found by viewing the new exhibition of works. In her paintings the artist uses broad and indistinct brushstrokes, an uneven outline, and deliberately enlarged parts of the face or body, emphasizing the emotions and character traits of those she portrays.

Valeria Salnikova: “A portrait is more a reflection of a person’s character than a photographic likeness. In my works there is no fear of fracturing an object, a body, a face with color and form in unexpected places. Having broken all the laws of easel painting, I show a real, living person.”

Sasha Richard: “At the foundation of any form, even the most complex, there always lies a simple, geometric one — a sphere, a cube, a cone. At the exhibition “Familiar Faces,” viewers must assemble them into a single work in their imagination in order to see the portrait itself. Continuing the Cubist traditions of Pablo Picasso, Valeria pays great attention to color and decorative forms, while behind the apparent lightness of the genre there often lie serious, profound, and sarcastic thoughts.”