Face of Truth - China Ink Drawing by Anastasia Kurakina - 2010 2010

Hand signed. Frame included. The work “Face of Truth” is part of the black and white series “Masks of Life” started in 2006 in Moscow. This series is about death and man’s passions. The first sketch was made in 2007 and a preparative drawing in 2009. The picture has been exhibited, together with other works finalists of the Premio Arte 2010, at “La Permanente” exhibition in 2010 in Milan and has been included in the catalogue of Contemporary Art 2012 (Giorgio Mondadori Editor). The work has been shown at the collective exhibitions at Don Quixote Gallery, at Marino Gallery in Rome and at Anastasia’s solo exhibitions at The Russian Center of Science and Culture and at the Cultural Center Elsa Morante in Rome. An image of this work has been awarded a first prize and a golden medal at the Italian National Art Award “Illustrare Manzoni” in 2013 (Manzoni’s Museum, Chieti-Milan). Description of the work: An Innate purity may be overshadowed by the darkness of life, but could also be lighten by its darkness. The lady in a white dress is a metaphor of lie, concealing under her clothes a lot of reptiles and other creatures. She wears a mask as the true faces of lie could not be defined. Mean characters, full of foul thoughts in the form of beetles, are worshipping the Lady Lie. They trample down «people's faces» and masks, bowing to the mechanism of lie. A black turtle on the foreground is carrying a child, pure and innocent at birth. The circumstances in which this child may find himself could make him follow some obscure ways. There is an artist watching the scene from the background, a Purity Defender, wearing a scale armour, which protects him from the influence of the world. He holds a white canvas in his hands, it is a window into another world, where there would be no suffering and no lie. Anastasia Kurakina Art education: 2012-2014 – MA Fine Art at the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome; 2007-2012 – Academy of Fine Arts of Rome; 1998-2005 – Moscow Academic Art Lyceum of the Academy of Fine Arts of Russia. Personal exhibitions: 2018 – Rome, Marino Gallery; 2018 –Milan, Zanuso Gallery; 2017 – London, Russian Cultu al Centre; 2017 –Luzern, Switzerland, International Comic Festival; 2017 – Rome, Russian Center of Culture and Science; 2016 – St.Petersburg, the Pushkinskaya 10 Art Center, Art League Gallery; 2016 – Porto Cervo, Sardinia, evening solo show at MDM Museum of Contemporary Art; 2016 – Rome, American Embassy; 2013 – Tolentino (MC), International Art Museum of Tolentino; 2006 – Moscow, Central House of Artist. Awards: 2017 – Rome, I prize of the national award “Arte &sport” of the AONI (National Italian Olympic Academy); 2015 – Rome, Adrenalina prize I prize; 2013 – Rome, Adrenalina prize under 35 and prize of the public, Museum of Contemporary Art MACRO; 2013 – Chieti, Milan, Golden Medal of «Illustrate Manzoni»award, Chieti-Milano Manzoni’s Museum, Italy; 2012 – Milan, Winner of the scholarship for the artistic research of Socetà Umanitaria of Milan; 2011 – Tolentino, I prize “City of Tolentino” of the 26th edition of the International Bienniale of Art Humor of Tolentino; 2008 – Modena, I prize “Under 25” of the national Competition of Contemporary Sacred Art “Familia Sancta“. Collective exhibitions: 2018 – Sunderland, UK, Sunderland Museum un Winter Gardens; 2018 – Edinburgh, UK, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, BP Portrait Award; 2017 – Vatican, Vatican Museums, “Antico Presente” exhibition; 2017 – London, UK, Sunny Art Award exhibition, Sunny Art Center; 2017 – Exeter, UK, Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, BP Portrait Award; 2017 – London, UK, National Portrait Gallery, BP Portrait Award; 2017 – London, Works on paper Art Fair, Royal Geographic Society; 2016 – Sardinia, live painting at Il Novecento gallery; 2016 – Rome, live painting at Brasilian Embassy at Simone Ghera’s “Dance inside Brasil” exhibition; 2016 – Oxford, UK, Oxford International Art Fair; 2015 – Mexico, MUMEDI Mexican Museum of Design; 2015 – Cambridge, UK, Cambridge International Art Fair; 2015 – Rome, Museum of Contemporary art MACRO; 2013 – Los Angeles, La luz de Jesus Gallery; 2013 – Shanghai, International Art Fair of Contemporary Art; 2013 – Rome, Embassy of Iraq, Embassy of Egypt; 2013 – Venice, Arte Laguna Prize’s exhibition at Venice’s Arsenal; 2012 – Rome, «Green blood» at Dorothy Circus Gallery; 2011 – Museum of Roman Cilvilization in Rome; 2010 – Naples, “Biennial of the artist’s book”; 2009 – La Paz, Bolivia, 4° Bienal Internacional Siart; 2008 – Bari, 28th International Fair of modern and contemporary Art; 2008 – Moscow, “Art Manezh 2008”, Central Exhibitions Hall Manege. Collections: Vatican Museumss, Vatican; Nina lobanova-Rostovskaya (London), National Museum of Art Humor of Tolentino, National Museum of Sacred Art of Nonantola(Italy), Marchese Sacchetti(Rome),National Centre for Manzoni’s Studies (Milan);private collections in Italy, UK,Russia, Germany.