Marina Marina

Marina was born in 1970 in a small city called Tambov, in rural Russia. She started playing the piano at a very early age and was accepted in a special school for musically gifted children at the age of seven.
After graduating from both musical and comprehensive school at 17, Marina went to work in order to earn a little money to continue her musical and general education in a college. She was hired by a nearby factory as an assistant to a graphic designer at the advertising department. And here quite unexpectedly Marina found out that she is a very talented designer and a fine artist.

In 1990 she successfully entered the faculty of fine arts at Kostroma State Necrasov University. During her education, Marina was actively engaged in self-education, creativity meanwhile increasing her professional level, she tried her hand at different genres and technical skills.
At this time, she joined an informal group of young Kostroma painters and took part in the Kostroma literary museum exhibition called “3+3”. Here she pretty early started to take part in art shows and different exhibitions of Kostroma Chapter of the Russian Artists Union.
In 1996, she successfully completed training at the university, and her diploma work "Portrait of a Girl in a Theatrical Costume" got an excellent mark.

After graduation, Marina continued doing painting professionally. This was the most active period of her creative research and participation in exhibitions in and outside her native city . Yaroslavl and Vologda galleries and some annual exhibitions had her works. In 1997 she received the Grand Prix at the Kostroma Regional Fine Art Show, and in 2000 she received 1st price at the National Juried Show of Portrait Art.

Marina lives in St Petersburg, she is married to Aydemir Saidov, a professional artist who also works in nude genre. The couple has an 22-year old daughter who is studying painting just like her parents did.

In 2002 and 2007 Marina was selected to represent her region on the All-Russia fin art show "Best Young Talent" in the Central Palace of Art in Moscow, Russia.

During her development in the art world, she tried to elaborate her own personal style and to choose the genre to work in constantly. Finally, she considered “nude” theme to be the most interesting and the richest one for her painting. In 2009 Marina took part in an exhibition "Artists of Russia to Watch" and was elected "The Artist to Watch". As a result of this success she was approached by representatives of Christie's Auctions of London in 2010 . Her work is now successfully sold on Christie's , Bonhams , Sworders and in St Petersburg's galleries.

In the spring of 2014 Marina started to work with an American agent. Her works were exhibited by galleries such as the Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara, USA and the Lotton Gallery, Chicago, USA. Since 2014 the American Art Collector magazine (USA) annually presents Marina Marina’s art on its pages in autumn and spring.

Nowadays Marina Marina is a member of the Russia's Artist Trade Union.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 15^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.