About/CV
Victoria Dael works with cultural memory, preserving elements of the past and positioning them in a contemporary lens. She perceives the world as a palimpsest in which every epoch preserves its cultural layer. Her works, a mix of painting, drawing, and collage, often include obscured and masterfully repurposed imagery from classical and traditional art movements. Victoria is interested in the dialogue between tradition and the postmodern period and strives to make viewers reconcile the two.
Biography
Victoria Dael (birth name — Victoria Belyakova) was born in 1982, Moscow, USSR.
In 2002 she graduated from the Moscow State Art Academy in memory of 1905, specializing in the design of the architectural and spatial environment.
In 2013 she graduated from the art faculty of VGIK, specialty "Art Director of Film and TV", workshop of Professor A.N. Tolkachev. During her studies, she repeatedly took part in exhibitions and filming as an assistant to the production designer. She has worked as an illustrator and storyboard artist for film and commercials.
In 2011 she became the winner of the creative competition for young artists "Luck is an attitude" within the framework of the Martini Art Club project. The painting "Inside", presented at the exposition, was included in the international corporate collection of the Martini company.
In 2012 she gave a series of lectures for young artists at the first international biennale of contemporary art Arsenale in Kyiv.
In 2014, she participated in the Dakar Biennale (Dak’Art 2014) as part of the project “The Art of Humanity” of the Luciano Benetton collection.
From 2015 to 2022, she lived and worked in Lviv, Ukraine.
Since 2016, she has been working under the name "Victoria Dael".
In 2016 she participated in the international exhibition "Under One Sky" of the Luciano Benetton Foundation. In the section “Looking to the East. Contemporary artists from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia and Uzbekistan.” Created a series of paintings "The Time of the Witnesses", which was influenced by the events in Aleppo and Palmyra and the death of the cultural heritage of one of the Eastern civilizations. This series of paintings was shown at a solo exhibition in Krakow, Poland.
In 2018 The paintings from the series "We Were Here» were shown in Kyiv in the art club "KHLAM" (Artists Authors Performers Musicians) as part of a project to get to know contemporary artists working in Ukraine, curated by Ganka Tretyak. And also the paintings visited the international fairs The Other Art Fair in Los Angeles, then in New York.
In 2019-2020, the dialogue between the culture of the past was devoted to the search for new plastic solutions and experiments with non-figurative painting. This is how the series of works "Terracotta Frescoes" appeared, referring to the fine arts of Pompeii.
In 2021, the global pandemic was reflected in the "Silence of Meanings" series of abstract paintings.
In 2022 In February, on the eve of the invasion of Russian troops, paintings were created that seemed to be harbingers of the tragic events in Ukraine. They started a new creative cycle, the first part of which is called "Premonition".
Now she lives and works in Malaga, Spain.
Victoria Dael’s work provides us with an example of how the culture and art of different eras are reinterpreted and preserved for generations. History is undergoing changes, and today's world is difficult to compare with the world of antiquity, the Renaissance, or the beginning of the twentieth century. But this is only a superficial sensation distorted by everyday life. Having adjusted our view on the perception of the deep foundations of our being, we will understand that there is something permanent, not subject to time, even if on the surface we see only ancient fragments and ruins. But they can tell us all the more expressively and, oddly enough, more completely, about the whole, native and familiar world, which only lurks behind time, while modern passions are raging on stage. In Victoria’s paintings, we touch this world with solid, eternal foundations. We all come from there. And even if we do not understand the history of art and do not know to which era the paintings and sculptures referenced by the artist belong, this does not detract from the impression that her works have on us.
Exhibitions
2023
Revealing Spain. The Exhibition Hall of Ethnographic Museum of Riogordo, Málaga, Spain
2018
The Other Art Fair. Brooklyn, New York, USA
The Other Art Fair. Los Angeles, New York, USA
2017
We Were Here. Art club KHLAM, Kyiv, Ukraine. (Personal exhibition)
Parisians. Jazz Coffee Bar, Kyiv, Ukraine. (Personal exhibition)
2016
Under One Sky. Dianxi Science and Technology Normal University, Lincang, China
Time Of Witnesses. Residence Rubinstein, Krakow, Poland. (Personal exhibition)
2015
France, Literature, Love. The Zvezda movie-house hall, Moscow, Russia.
Secrets of parks. Street gallery of the Tretyakov Gallery. Within the framework of the project Night at the Museum
2014
The Art of Humanity. Imago Mundi - Luciano Benetton Collection. Volkswagen Showroom, Dakar, Le Sénégal.
Love. The exhibition hall of the Moscow Union of Artists, Moscow, Russia.
2013
The Cinema Artist. The exhibition hall of Slavonic Fund for Literature and Culture, Moscow, Russia.
Literature Classics in Movie Sketch during the 33rd international festival of VGIK students’ films. Exhibition hall of the Fine Arts faculty, Moscow, Russia.
2012
Without Halts. The exhibition hall of the State Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSIZO, Moscow, Russia. ( Personal exhibition )
WeArt Weekend 1. WeART Gallery on Nikolina Gora, Moscow, Russia.
On the Road. The exhibition hall of the library reading room named after I.S.Turgenev, Moscow, Russia.
The Rapid Drawing. The exhibition hall of VGIK Fine Arts faculty name after S. A. Gerasimov, Moscow, Russia.
2011
Luck is an Attitude in the frame of Martini Art Club project. Pobeda gallery, Moscow, Russia. (The winner of the competition.)
Kinoartel. The exhibition hall SPACE at the Flakon design plant, Moscow, Russia.
On the Fourth Floor. The exhibition hall of the Moscow State Academic School of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia.
2010
Student Art Fair. The exhibition Hall of ARTPLAY Design Centre, Мoscow, Russia.
2009
The Theatre and the Cinema. Moscow Union of Artists youth exhibition. Exhibition hall at Kuznetsky Most, 20. Moscow, Russia.
Movie Sketch as part of the METRY International Youth Festival of short films and animation, Tver, Russia.
The Best Works Of The School Of Cinema Students, part of the jubilee of the Faculty of Fine Arts.
2008
Cinema on Paper. The exhibition hall of the Theatrical Centre, Strastnoy Boulevard, Moscow, Russia.
Awards
The winner of the creative competition for young artists «Luck is an attitude», part of the Martini Art Club project in 2011
Publications
SUR in English: Discovering Spain through the eyes of a Ukrainian artist, Jennie Rhodes, 2023
Liza Frenelya: Time of Witneses, Yaroslava Khomenko, 2022
CRUVOIR: Victoria Dael: Dramatic Confrontation Between Culture and Barbarism, Baltazar Malevolent, 2021
STATE OF THE ARTS NYC: Picks from the Other Art Fair, 2018
CANVAS: A blog by Saatchi Art. One to Watch. Victoria Dael’s Works Preserve Cultural Memory», Jessica McQueen, 2017
MARTINI ART CLUB NEWSPAPER: Итоги первого конкурса Martini Art Club, 2011
Collections
The works are in private collections in the USA, Great Britain, Spain, Hong Kong, in the collection of the State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSIZO.