Biography

 

Viktorya Nare Karapetyan is a figurative artist originally from Armenia (Erevan) currently living and working in Barcelona, she considers herself multicultural since she has lived in Russia (Krasnodar), Argentina (Buenos Aires) and Spain (Madrid, Barcelona). Events that in some way has also shaped her personality and therefore her work.
She endeavors to capture in her realistic works the condition of being human, deepening moods and concepts between the dilemma of uncertainty and search of meaning in the presence of the unknown, or the inevitable fear of finitude.
Viktoria wonders over these matters constantly, and as an artist she feels compelled to guide the viewer over those intimate reflections. However she does not reveal a truth, because she believes the truth is improbable. She simply tries to converse with the viewer about these matters, generating a mirror effect between her art and the observer; a symbolic way of connection.
She believes that works of art are endowed with a certain aura or energy, which surrounds each artist and is embedded on their work. That energy is what the viewer can identify with at a certain moment in her life, thus generating a deep empathy. In addition to being an artist, she has been a Fashion Designer since 2006, knowledge that she applies to the production of her works.
Her obsession with the intangible and perfection together with her elegant feminine sensibility yield in artworks with depth and delicacy.

 

“Nare ́s art has the power to bring your own shadow side to the surface, and at the same instant, moment it transmutes it into light. A light we all carry and through her art she brings it through you. It’s the details, the silences, the treasures and many stories at the same time. Just like that. Her artwork offers you the opportunity to relive a past that you never had but that somehow you recognize. Her art invokes in you a peculiar feeling of familiarity in the midst of a strange life… and quite frankly, all is fine.”

 

By Efrat Cybylkiewitcz
Artist and Editor in chief in “Artmoire”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Tell us a little bit about your fascination with realistic in your artwork.

 

I have a vivid memory of my childhood observing for hours the printed reproduction of Mona Lisa’s portrait by Da Vinci, hanging in one of the bedrooms in my grandparents’ house. Since I was little, I have been attracted and intrigued by art, those intrinsic aspects of human being that even today cannot be explained exactly, why do we feel attracted to certain things and not others since we starting to construct memories?
Perhaps and only perhaps that approach has shaped in me the attraction for realism. A certain search for familiarity, perhaps if it were an abstract painting, would not have been so significant to me.
Figuration is essential to the human being, we can see it in “Cave art” in those first artistic manifestations. It seems that it is in our nature to portray what is visible and try to emulate in some way what is invisible but what somehow we know it’s there, we feel it, but we still cannot explain it. In this quest to represent the invisible, surely abstract art was based or simply in contrast to so many years of figuration as a rebellion. But in my opinion, the invisible can be represented with familiar forms, thereby enabling the spectator to connect and mimetize, taking them to unfamiliar planes.
That is why I am fascinated by realism, but I clarify, not for the perfect reproduction of an object or figure without reason. It is what I want to convey and generate through that familiarity that matters most to me.
For this reason, and naturally, I am prone to creating spaces between the real and the dreamlike. The balance between the visible and invisible.

 

2. Is it important that your art feels alive in some way?.

 

If It is important? of course, if the viewer perceives it that way, it is my wish. For me it is essential to be faithful to my intuition and let my subconscious flow, being purely authentic with who I am and what I want to express. And as I evolve and develop as a person, my art in the same way reflect it. To be clear, many times it is not necessary to reach the maximum degree of detail or Hyperrealism to achieve this, since the same could happen in a photograph, it is what is behind the apparent, behind each brushstroke, the human factor, the small or large details that make the painting have the signature and essence of the author. The energy, the yearnings, the love of art embedded in the canvas cm by cm.

 

3. When did you start showing an interest in painting?

 

Art has always been present in my life, it has been an innate vocation, I think. Although I have known and felt it constantly, the fears of failure, family and social mandates led me to move away from it and resume it as an adult. In this encounter, my husband, an artist of exceptional quality, Martin Llamedo, has played an extremely important and fundamental role. I can say that art and painting united us, and day by day it feeds our soul and gives meaning to our journey of life together. Although that happened in 2010, it was not until 2014 that the illusion began to throb in me that perhaps it was possible to allow myself to dedicate to what I knew I loved to do. At that time Martín was teaching drawing and painting classes in his atelier and I began to participate in them, starting with drawing and after a year moving on to oil painting.
When working with color and oils, I noticed that it was the medium with which I felt more “Me”. There was very little time I could dedicate to painting, since I had a full-time job (Designer and Product Manager for a men’s clothing firm) that was very demanding and consumed a lot of time and energy. For this reason I was able to finish my first work after a year and a half of completion. I can firmly affirm that every minute of my effort and training, every night in wakefulness and the risk of making the decision to quit a job with a fixed and constant salary, has been worth it to fully dedicate myself to what gives meaning to my life.

 

 

 

4. Your technical proficiency is astounding – what kind of work ethic have you had over the years to get to where you are now? Further to that question, what does an average day look like for you?

 

Although we know that there is an innate question and certain inclinations towards one subject or another, only the incessant practice and the development of it can lead us to a possible excellence in whatever we are going to do. It is worth clarifying that the parameters of excellence depend on the context, socio-cultural and geographical issues and on individual and collective values and searches.
My case is not very different from this rule “Work day by day and constantly to your maximum potential, in whatever it is that you are passionate about doing.”
Learning for me is constant and fundamental, it is a one way path. While possible “excellence” is desired and achievable, there will always be greater “excellence”. That is why the feeling of achievement, or conformity is usually fleeting in me. I could say that I do not finish the works, I let them go, since I feel that I could improve them eternally not only technically but in this desire to somehow catch that vital energy, a certain essence of myself from that period that I longing that transcends. It is a moment in which I sense that it is the exact moment to let it go.
My days painting are the routine that I always dreamed of having, until a few years ago it was just that, a longing. Now that I can do it and while I can do it, I try to give myself 100% and above all and beyond the natural frustrations in the permanent battle to improve and/but enjoy the process.
The painting takes place, with a lot of coffee in between, sometimes in silence, sometimes with music that accompanies my energy and mood of the day, other times podcast, notes or interesting interviews, mostly on philosophy and art. Most days I struggle between 80% frustration and 20%. of satisfaction.
Now I can affirm that when you work of what you love, you lose the notion of working, it is what you are, it is what gives meaning to your existence.
I who lived for many years in automatic mode (of which I do not deny, every hour of my past has formed the conception of what I am today) I can say that doing what you are passionate about is an awakening, it is really BEING. And I always try to encourage people, to inquire, to introspect what they are really passionate about and do everything possible to carry it out, to wake up.

 

5. From birds, to flowers, and patterns, how do you choose your subjects & composition? What significance do they have to you?

 

It is not about choosing, the elements do not come first, then the concept and composition. My creative process is initially intuitive, then its maturation and the analysis of that intuition is what becomes a piece or not. First of all for me it is essential to be authentic and listen to my inner voice, surrender to my subconscious, and then rationally and consciously analyze why. In this maturation process, many ideas fade along the way, for not fulfilling my search in rational analysis, and others are transformed and strengthened. Fundamentally my works are based on the idea of the analysis of the inner world in connection with the whole (the universal), I try to delve into the purest condition of the human being, idealistically prevailing our capacity for empathy, resilience, intuition, connection. The elements that I use are the representative metaphor of the invisible, that is why the game between the real and the illusory (dreamlike) pictorial. To bring the viewer to the level of familiarity but breaking it down to try to expand the barriers of the apparent, to promote deep analysis, the question instead of the answer or simply generate a network of connection that I wish that transcends more than my time on earth.

 

 

 

6. With the amount of time and effort that go into each piece – do you ever find it difficult to part with them when they are complete? As an artist how do you cope with parting of your paintings?

 

I feel that my paintings, beyond being the product of what I explains in the previous point, are a kind of diary, a testimony of my history, my day to day and a possible future that I long for. There, in the brushstrokes, although not apparent, is my daily state, my definitive mutations due to the entire emotional process that went through during its realization.
An intrinsic relationship is generated, but ultimately it is precisely the “Leitmotif” that drives me to create, from the deepest and most vulnerable of the interior towards the search for the final connection with the viewer.
It is like putting a little piece of me on the canvas and letting it go, it is difficult to explain, but it is a bittersweet feeling and at the same time bareness towards the world. But bareness that I seek for the reason that consciously or unconsciously prompts me to create. Beyond looking pretentious, I clarify these are my wishes, since I consider there is no absolute truth in anything.

 

 

7. What do you think is the future of realism in the art world?

 

What a difficult question, it requires an in-depth analysis of how values and preferences have changed over the last century. But what I can observe is that the general value that is given to art itself is in decline compared to what it was given in the past.
Throughout the last century, paradigms were breaking, generating new concepts and artistic movements, but beyond that the figuration persisted although now it had to share space with its abstracts brothers. And welcome to every art form that pushes and expands the barriers of the mind.
Based on my hypothesis of the search for familiarity and mimesis in representation. As humans continue to preserve the capacity for empathy and deep analysis, we will continue to preserve figurative art. Of course, it is changing with the appearance of new technologies and new tastes. And it does not mean that something is better or but or of greater or less value, as long as there are new proposals that go hand in hand with social evolution and are testimony of the time, welcome. But I try to remain idealistic and romantic in the fact that the “traditional”, will continue to be given value, what is done by hands and the purest human essence.
I hope with illusion to it being so.

 

 

 

8. Apparently you are always on the lookout for new objects to include in your artwork. What makes something special enough to be used in a painting?

 

This is going to be an expansive response to the answer about my creative process and the elements that I use in my creations. The elements also have a lot to do with the things that inspire me, on a daily basis, which can be a conscious (rational) and unconscious process.
Inspiration is not necessarily a specific thing, it can be the bark of a tree, the rainbow of orchids, the branches of trees drawing veins in the sky, a bee pollinating, there is so much to be inspired by nature. So also an aroma, a book, a dance, a music or a deep talk with a friend or simply delving deeply into human nature and questioning whys.
All this is latent, it is part of my daily experiences and the baggage that makes me who I am, the conception I have of myself, the avatar that I reflect with the desire for them to see me, and appreciate it in my work.
And as the creative process is intrinsic to my experiences and which are evolving, mutating and others disappearing, thus new elements are incorporated and others are discarded. Again it is not a conscious process until the maturing moment of the idea, all the previous thing is to surrender to my intuition and subconscious. In the conscious and rational process, looking for the sense of why the choice of this or that element forms the concept behind each piece. The composition is generally also intuitive, I can modify it according to the parameters of what the “beautiful” represents for me, but it always ends up being a balance between the first intuition and the objective, visual beauty, the attempt to balance the work.

 

 

 

9. For you what has been the most challenging piece to date? What made it so difficult?