Valentina Maksimova

The style and beauty of Valentina Maksimova's work is not easy to categorize. Is it textile collage? Appliqué? Perhaps found object art? How does an artist comment on the relationship between reality and illusion, color and light? What medium does she choose?

Valentina works with textile or seemingly random pieces of mix-matched cloth. Thousands of ordinary patterns and textures are transformed by Maksimova’s patchwork to become winter landscapes, musical instruments, expressionist portraits or fairy tale birds.

Valentina draws her inspiration from what surrounds her: the quiet and magical land of the old Russian city of Uglich. A tourist on a weekend trip from a cosmopolitan capital city may see the mighty Volga river and onion domes of old churches on its high bank, but Maksimova invites us to see the tradition and eternal order of nature within these landscapes. In her textiles, Maksimova portrays ice breaking and drifting down the river, autumn leaves in the pale northern light, apples on a country home kitchen table in her own creative style. The artist created her Macondo where harmony is everything and time means little.

Valentina Maksimova started painting with acrylics and watercolors but later discovered that working with patches of textile gave her the freedom to make unusual combinations of harmony and tension through color and helped her extend her composition through texture patterns.

Valentina Maksimova’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout Russia, Germany and France. Her work can be found in institutional and private collections throughout Europe. She is delighted to make her debut in the United States.