Julija Karavajeva

I am professional art historian and art critic, who after years of art research and getting a PhD degree decided to lean into artistic path – something that was always with me, but never took the leading role in my life. Although I have definitely a lot to say about such change, mental depth of artistic research felt somehow incomplete without direct physical expression and pure joy of artistic creation. Oil painting was always something mentally balancing and switching my brain to a completely different mode. Since childhood the smell of oil paints was a magical thing to me – I would describe it as a smell of creation itself. I learned painting since childhood and continued in my student years, but just pure painting would be unfulfilling for me as I always had this deep curiosity about deeper meanings behind the artworks and a soul of a researcher. So there is that strange duality and the need to fulfill both mental and expressive physical side. Moreover, in the process of art research you constantly meet with the fact that some paintings, apart from their artistic value, look perfect in galleries and exhibition halls but turn out to be disturbing in your personal space (some pieces you just won’t put in your bedroom). So I ...

Vilnius Academy of Arts

Tokyo University of Art and Music

Kansai University