Ksenia Lavrova - Xenia Lavrova - Ксения Лаврова

"At the first meeting Ksenia showed us a portrait of King Philip II: thanks to bright acrylics, it immediately attracted our attention among the rest of the graphics. 'Long time ago the costumes were probably even more brightly, but now we do not have the way to  know it " - says the artist. Ksenia understands costumes: she graduated from the faculty of arts and crafts of the famous St. Petersburg ‘Mucha' academy, where she was engaged in artistic textiles. She even worked with famous designers. But that was long ago, before Ksenia went to The Petersburg State University to study the Chinese language – just for her own fun and interest.So, such an extraordinary person is just not able to do ordinary things. Indeed, Ksenia’s  graphics strikes at first sight  - with precision work, thin lines, bright colors. She draws book illustrations, paints Japanese women with luxurious hair, depicts bright, clumsy Africans and historical figures - of course, in an absolutely correctly detailed suits. Ksenia knows a lot and talks with pleasure about historical figures which were strong characters.

She talks mostly about women: about a Chinese empress, who lived to an old age and set up control over the whole country, or about a wife of an Indian maharajah, in honour of who the famous Taj Mahal was built. Ksenia doesn’t ignore literary characters as well: her old flabby and unsympathetic Don Quixote still charms an audience - with details (the hilt is decorated with nude female figures, a mouse running on a flap of doublet) and with untypical interpretation of the image. Ksenia Lavrova was born in Leningrad, Russia, in 1967. In 1990 she graduated from LVHPU, where she specialized in furniture and decorative fabrics. Since 1994 she has been a member of the Union of Artists of St. Petersburg, the section "Graphics"."