Aleksandra Istorik / English

Aleksandra Istorik is one of those artists whose trajectory seems to move at a different speed than the calendar. In her early twenties she has already accumulated international exhibitions, her own gallery in the historic center of Valencia, and several live painting projects in hotels, airports, and urban spaces. Her name is beginning to be consistently associated with a very recognizable aesthetic concept: “Golden Surrealism”, a form of contemporary surrealism in which gold, movement, and symbolic storytelling take center stage.

1. Roots and training: from Russia to Valencia

Aleksandra Istorik is presented in the press as a Russian artist based in Valencia, trained in two major institutions: the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.

This dual geographic and academic link is important for several reasons:

• The Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg carries a strong tradition of figurative painting, technical mastery of drawing, and a classical understanding of composition.
• The Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) provides a more experimental, contemporary context, closely connected to the Valencian art scene and contemporary European visual culture.

The intersection between these two educational cultures can be seen in her work: there is a basis of classical craftsmanship—mastery of the body, perspective, and volume—on which she builds openly dreamlike, fragmented, and symbolic images.

Valencia is not just the city where she lives; it is the place from which she has decided to unfold her career. The city appears constantly in her biography: she exhibits in emblematic hotels, opens a gallery in the heart of the historic center, and takes part in initiatives linked to Valencia’s role as World Design Capital.

As early as 2019, the artist began showcasing her work digitally, and in 2022 she created her first permanent exhibition space at the Hotel Balneario Las Arenas, facing the sea. This already demonstrates an early desire to take art out of strictly traditional circuits and bring it into spaces where residents, tourists, and non-specialist audiences interact.

2. A fast-track career: European fairs, hotels, and airports

Although she is described as a “young promise,” the list of venues in which she has exhibited is already considerable. Local media highlight that, despite her youth, Aleksandra Istorik has shown her work in international galleries and art fairs in Valencia, Madrid, Barcelona, Marbella, and various European cities such as Karlsruhe (Germany), Paris (Art Capital), Cologne, and Saint Petersburg.

Among the most notable milestones are:

• Karlsruhe Art (Germany), an international fair of classical, modern, and contemporary art, where the artist exhibited the work Resolution of Uncertainty.
• Art Capital 2022 in Paris, one of Europe’s major art events, where she participated as an artist established in Valencia.
• Various exhibitions in Madrid, Barcelona, Marbella, Cologne, and Saint Petersburg, consolidating a profile of an artist circulating on the international scene.

To this fair circuit we must add a very characteristic line of work in Istorik’s practice: her presence in spaces that are not strictly museum-based, such as hotels and airports.

In Valencia, her name is associated with:

• The Hotel Balneario Las Arenas, where she set up a permanent exhibition and launched the initiative “Arte en directo” (“Art Live”): live painting sessions in which hotel guests can watch her work on the canvas and interact with her.
• The Valencia Airport, where she installed a large work linked to her “Golden Surrealism” and again painted live, incorporating the experience of travel and transit into her artistic discourse.
• More recently, the Hotel Estimar in the heart of Valencia, where specialized press highlights the initiative “Dorando la realidad” (“Gilding Reality”), another intervention blending live art and direct contact with the hotel public.

In all these cases we find a constant: a desire to break the barrier between the studio and the viewer, taking the painting process out into social spaces—a lobby, an airport hall, a hotel terrace—and generating situations of surprise and participation.

3. Aleksandra Istorik Gallery: her own gallery in a medieval townhouse

One of the most significant gestures in her trajectory is the opening, at just 22 years old, of Aleksandra Istorik Gallery in the historic center of Valencia, at Calle Almirante 1.

This space has several layers of interest:

1. Memory of the place
   • The gallery occupies premises that once housed the legendary gallery Val i 30, known for working with historic groups such as El Paso or Equipo Crónica, key references in Spanish avant-garde art.
   • The physical space preserves traces of a medieval townhouse, including a stone arch that once belonged to a noble house from the 15th or 16th century, linked to old Valencia and represented on historical maps such as those of Mancelli (1608) and Tosca (1704).

2. Current function

1. • Aleksandra Istorik Gallery is not only a showcase for the artist’s work; it is conceived as a platform for other creators: painters, sculptors, draftsmen, illustrators, and graffiti artists.
   • The artist herself insists that the gallery is “open to all people and initiatives,” stressing a participatory and community-oriented character.

3. An entrepreneurial and symbolic gesture

1. • Opening a gallery at 22 implies taking on the roles of curator, manager, and entrepreneur, as well as painter.
   • Symbolically, it is a way of staking out a position in the city’s cultural fabric: not only sending works to fairs, but also generating a stable meeting point in the historic center.

The space also benefits from a singular story: the dialogue between young contemporary art and the architectural traces of a medieval palazzo creates an interesting contrast that fits well with Istorik’s imagery, in which historical time and dream time intertwine.