When you look at the works by Vania Zouravliov, you feel being enthralled by illusions of the wonderful world where beauty is mixed with the ugliness, life with the decay and everything is interpenetrated with the blazing sensuality. His works are vibrant, they communicate the simple elements of life to the viewers in the most expressive and memorable way. What can describe the diversity of reality better than the explicit symbols like the opposition of dark and eroticism that is frequently found in his images? Speaking about this artist, we speak about the mature talent, inspiring provocative and symbolic art. While browsing his versatile portfolio you can notice the beautiful oriental motifs, elements related to Russian tales, the animal theme is also described in his art. All his works are created with the desire and each of them has a certain zest and bears some message.
He was born in Russia and inspired from an early age by influences as diverse as The Bible, Dante’s Divine Comedy, early Disney animation and North American Indians. Something of a child prodigy in his homeland, he was championed by many influential classical musicians including Ashkenazi, Spivakov and Menuhin. He even had television programs made about him and was introduced to famous communist artists, godfathers of social realism, who told him that his work was from the Devil.
By the age of 13, Vania Zouravliov was exhibiting internationally, visited Canterbury several times as well as Paris, Colmar and Berlin. He subsequently studied in the UK, and during this time began creating illustrations for The Scotsman and comics for Fantagraphics and Dark Horse in the US. His most recent projects have been for Beck’s The Information and National Geographic.
PAGAN WOOD 