Olga Suvorova is an internationally acclaimed Russian artist. She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1966. She studied monumental composition at the famous Ilya Repin Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. Her career has been greatly influenced by her parents, Igor and Natalya, both highly praised artists in St. Petersburg. Other sources of influence include Gustav Klimt, Piero Della Francesca, and traditional Russian icons.
Suvorova’s work was exhibited in the St. Petersburg Art Academy in a solo showing in the spring of 1990 where her paintings were received with great enthusiasm and praise. In 1993 she was awarded first prize for painting by the Academy. She also was honoured with President Yeltsin’s Artist prize from a competition in which more than 3,000 artists took part. Presently, she is an accomplished and successful artist, possessing her own easily recognisable style, and busy with her exhibitions and commissions. She is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia.
The artist’s interesting portraits first gained her reputation in Russia, and then abroad. These tableaux have an eye-catching highly decorative style, which nevertheless does not become trite or facile. Filled with sumptuous detail and rich colour, the paintings possess harmony and a compositional formality that reminds the viewer of Renaissance masters. The effect is brilliant yet not gaudy, classical but not sparse, rich yet not glitzy. Her use of ornament and pattern reminds one of Klimt and Hundertwasser, but her meticulous drawing and modelling of form looks back in time whereas the artists aforementioned gazed into the future.
Suvorova exhibits regularly in Paris and London, and she has also exhibited in Italy, Germany, Sweden, Finland, France, Britain, Ireland, China, and the USA. Her work is highly regarded and eagerly acquired by galleries and serious art collectors around the world.
The painting above is one of her “Annunciation” canvases. It is replete with symbolism and as with many of her paintings, the portraits are flanked by florid decorative elements, which somehow remain non-intrusive, despite their overwhelming baroque omnipresence. Animals and flowers are another element that is an almost constant and universal accompaniment to the human figures, and here, birds complement the angels, whose widespread wings flank the Virgin. Mary’s face is mature and pensive, as though the annunciation has already converted her into an all-knowing and experienced woman and mother, rather than a simple and innocent maiden. The ultramarine blues are complemented by reds and yellows, but the viewer always returns to the expressive, although other-worldly faces.
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