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“
I am not a teacher go life, a philosopher or a mystic.
I am a seeker of the new beauty.
My task is to see the invisible and to make it visible to others.
I spend a large part of my time in the world of noumenons,
grasping the hidden aspect of things.
This is a creative precess of cognition,
Congaing oneself, the word and the secrets of the spirit.
It is an endless precess.
1996
Diana Vouba - graphic artist, painter, was born in Abkhazia in 1958.
In 1986 she graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Arts. Since 1988 - Member of the Union of Artists of the USSR Union of Artists of Russia. 1991 The Art Workshops Academy of Arts.
Participant in numerous group exhibitions, including "Modern Art of the Northern Caucasus" at the State Museum of Oriental Art, "Bulldozer Exhibition - then everywhere" Creative Union of Artists of Russia, "Abstraction in Russia XX Century" at the State Russian Museum, the projects Kolodzei Art Foundation: «Women in Art», «New Identities New Forms Contemporary Russian Women Artists» was exhibited in museums and cultural centers of the U.S., "Moscow - New York. A simultaneous" in the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA), Moscow, Chelsea Art Museum Home of the Miotte Foundation (New York). More than 30 solo exhibitions in Russia, USA, France, Switzerland and Tunisia. Her works are in the collections of the Russian Academy of Arts, in Kolodzei Art Foundation, at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, in galleries and prestigious collections around the world.
Chronology
1958
The town was founded as an industrial center of Abkhazia in 1942. Tkuarchal - a unique place - a town that is completely ringed by mountains with only one road leading to the entrance and exit (including railways). The architecture of the town is interesting and unique. Most of the administrative and public buildings, as well as residential premises in the central part of Tkvarcheli were built by German imprisoned soldiers (after 1943-44).
Diana was born on the 5th of January
in Abkhasia in a picturesque mining town Tkuarchal
in a miner's family.
Design of buildings was developed with participation of German architects and engineers. This has left a unique imprint on the town and made it unlike other small towns of the USSR.
1961
On April 12th Yuri Gagarin made the first ever flight into space. Vouba family moved to the town of Ochamchira.
Poyekhali!
The first paining experience Diana obtained on her own at 6 years, windows are pained in the house, she mixes oil and water colors and draws her first paintings.
1964
Goes to the first class of Ochamchira secondary school.
Let's go!
1967
The father gives his daughter a lottery ticket, and she wins a piano. Diana attends a music school, from which she graduates in one year. Her teachers call her a "little genius". But she was not able to continue her most promising music career due to a sharp aggravation of rheumatism. After a long-term treatment, she stops playing piano and switches completely to painting.
3B class of the secondary school
1967 –1972
Chief art editor at school.
1972
Wins admission to the Sukhumi Arts School.
1976
Graduates from the arts school with honors.
1977 - 1978
Lives in Leningrad in the family of Isaac Kopelyan, a Soviet artist, book illustrator, organizer of the publishing trade, a brother of an Honoured Artist of the USSR Yefim Zakharovich Kopelyan. During this whole period Diana attends the studio of Andrei Andreyevich Mylnikov in Repin Institute and at evenings continues studying at evening painting classes in the institute.
Self-portrait
oil on canvas, 1978
1979
Wins admission to the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts on common grounds with passing exams, affording to utilize a prioritized enrollment possibility without passing exams in favour of her countryman.
1980
Gets married
1981
The birth of the son
Untitled
charcoal on paper, 1981
1984
Divorces her husband
Alan's father portrait
oil on cardboard, 1983
1986
Graduates from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. Defends graduation thesis perfectly and she is invited to the Creative workshops of the USSR Academy of Arts in Moscow. But Diana has her little son, she prefers to come back to Abkhazia and be with him. For one year she works as the principal artist in the Sukhumi Youth Theatre and creates a set of paintings for a play "Faratyev's fantasies" which had a great success.
1986
Returns to Tbilisi for an internship in a branch of the Creative workshops of the USSR Academy of Arts.
Self-portrait
sanguine on paper, 1987
1988
Becomes a member
the USSR Artists Union
For two months works in an art-residence in Dzintari (Jurmala, Latvia), where she creates a series "The last of the gone" based on the same-name masterpiece novel by Bagrat Shinkuba and engages in small sculpture forms.
From The Last from Left series
oil on paper, 30х30 cm, 1998
Sculpture of chamotte
'89
Due to the political situation in Tbilisi, compelled to to go to Moscow, where she continues to work in the Creative workshop of the USSR Academy of Arts under direction of Nicholay Afanasieviha Ponomarev.
Self-portrait
china ink on paper, 1989
1990
From this originate her series "Portraits of the flowers" then stretched in time.
Buys a bouquet of irises at metro Arbatskaya and paints a portrait of a flower on a large canvas.
"Irises", oil on canvas, 100x100 cm, 1991
"Pansies", oil on canvas, 100x100 cm, 1991
"Cornflower", oil on canvas, 100x100 cm, 1991
Paints portraits of foreign diplomats. In parallel with this, she works in the genre of abstract painting.
She creates a series of "Apsny" dedicated to the folk Nart epos.
"Requiem", oil on canvas
"Mother", oil on canvas
"Warriors", charcoal on paper
1991
Does an internship in Rome in a villa Abamlek.
At this time the political regime is overthrown in Moscow
Twilight on Abamelek
oil on canvas, 90х110 cm
Meets with the counselor of the USSR Embassy in Italy Felix Stanevsky and the family of Giuseppe Boffa (an Italian historian and journalist, one of the most respected experts on the history of Eastern Europe, Sovietologist), the friendship with whom lasted for many years.
Lyudmila Khaustova
(F. Stanevsky's spouse), Rome, 1995
Giuseppe Boffa, Rome, 1995
Alan Vouba and Laura Boffa, Rome, 1995
Diana, Felix and Luda Stanevsky, Moscow, 2002
Massimo Boffa and Diana, Rome, 1995
Rome, 1991
Abamelek, Rome, 1991
Interested in Italian mosaic and creates a series of paintings that resemble the mosaic technique.
Her first solo exhibition in Moscow on 10 Elizarova street (in 1993 the former name Yakovoapostolsk lane was returned) takes place in the mansion of the International Foreign Policy Association. After a visit to the exhibition a famous writer Fazil Iskander writes about her work:
Graduates from the Creative workshops of the USSR Academy of Arts.
Fazil Iskander
I've seen Diana Vouba's paintings at the exhibition as well as at the workshop. I am not a painter or a fine art expert; therefore, I estimate the painting as an ordinary spectator. I love her paintings. They are full of passion, inspiration, pain and Abkhazian colors.

I think art is able to imitate almost anything, but no one can ever hide the lack of inspiration, a sense of inner rightness as described by Osip Mandelstam. Diana Vouba's art is an inspired improvisation. But real improvisation, in my opinion, is only possible regarding the inner theme, which the artist is living through. It is only then that this improvisation shall not be converted into vociferous rhetoric. It is precisely the case here, and, therefore, Diana Vouba's paintings breathe of authenticity and give delight.
1992
In April, the first major solo exhibition in the Central House of Artist at Krymsky Val takes place.
Paints a portrait taken from life of the famous actor Vyacheslav Vasilyevich Tikhonov.
On August 14, Georgian forces entere Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia.


War begins.

Two weeks later Diane and her son, who at this time are in the capital of Abkhazia, escape from the occupied town by miracle
The war affected the painting technique.
Diana changes brush for the palette knife.
1993
Admitted to the International Federation of Artists, the International Art Foundation, the Creative Union of Culture of Moscow Workers.
In the beginning of the year goes to the iconpainting school. On the first lesson she is invited to paint the temple of the Holy Martyr Nikita on Basmannaya Street, Moscow. Considering herself not ready for such a feat, she refuses.
Participates in the exhibition "Golden Brush", Moscow.
Paints a portrait of the leader of the feminist movement France Maya Surduts
Parisian (Maya Surduts)
oil on canvas, Moscow, 1993
Maya Surduts,
Paris, 1997
Paints a portrait of Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Daoud Barakat and his wife Naila.
Portrait of the ambassador of Palestine in the Russian Federation Daud Barakat
oil on canvas, Moscow, 1993
Maya and Diana
in Diana's studio,
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 1997
1994
Creates a series of "Arbat musicians"
oil on canvas, Moscow
oil on canvas, Moscow
oil on canvas, Moscow
Solo exhibition in "Russia" Gallery, Moscow
Diana at opening of a personal exhibition
"Russia" Gallery, Moscow, 1994
Meets with the film and theater actor Oleg Yankovsky.
Oleg Yankovsky, Diana Vouba, Oksana Yarmolnik in Diana's studio
Moscow, 1997
Lyudmila Zorina, Oleg Yankovsky, Diana Vouba
CHA, Moscow, 1998
Paints a portrait of Princess Boncompagni Ludovisi in Rome and a married couple of the Italian aristocrats Marisela e Paolo Federici.
Trip to Italy.
Portrait of Marisela Federici
Villa La Furibonda, Rome
Portrrait of Princess Lyudmila Boncompagni Ludovisi
Villa Ludovisi, 1994
Portrait of Marisela Federici
Villa La Furibonda, Rome
Portrait of Paolo Federici
Villa La Furibonda, Rome
Diana Vouba
Villa Ludovisi, 1994
Marisela e Paolo Federici
Villa La Furibonda, Rome
1995
Invited in a sightseeing and creative trip to Thailand and Cambodia by the staff of the International Red Cross.
January
She attended an anniversary ceremony of the Prince Sihanouk's sister in Phnom Penh, where the Prince's younger sister gave her some kind of exotic fruit and said that the next incarnation of Diana will be in the capital of Thailand in Chinatown Tambourine in a Brahmin family. It sounded strange to her Orthodox ear, but she kept appearances and as a guest of honor handed to the monks cooked treads.
Portrait of a boy
oil on canvas, Cambodia
oil on canvas, Cambodia
Diana paints a portrait of the Chairman of Red Cross in Thailand
oil on canvas, Cambodia
Apsara
oil on canvas, Cambodia
oil on canvas, Cambodia
Angkor, Cambodia
Paints a series of flowers and portraits.
Working visit to Tunisia. Paints a series of portraits of the local nobility.
Portrait of the family member Gorbel
oil on canvas, Tunisia
Portrait of the Algerian muralist Rasheed Kuraishi
oil on canvas, Tunisia
Madam Gorbel against the background of the portrait
oil on canvas, Tunisia
«Family Gorbel»
oil on canvas, Tunisia
Portrait of the family member Gorbel
oil on canvas, Tunisia
In Moscow works a lot on geometric abstraction.
1996
Solo exhibitionin "Khayachi" Gallery, Tunisia
Diana on her exhibition with the son
The Russian Embassy in Tunisia invites Diana to take part in the International festival of Fine Arts in Mahares-Sfax, which annually attracts artists from around the world. Russia was represented for the first time. She painted portraits for two months and was awarded for this work a golden medal.
Here in Tunisia meets a famous intelligence officer, a UK national, Tanya Matthews, paints her portrait. During the session three ambassadors of England, the USA and France are present. Two hours later, after the portrait had been finished, Tatyana calls the Russian service of the BBC and tells them Diana's story, Diana then gives a live interview.
Sole exhibition in the Russian cultural center, Tunisia
The exhibition in the "Art Manege" is presented as "EastGallery", Moscow
Formulates objectives of her work:
I am not a teacher go life, a philosopher or a mystic.
I am a seeker of the new beauty.
My task is to see the invisible and to make it visible to others.
I spend a large part of my time in the world of noumenons,grasping the hidden aspect of things.
This is a creative precess of cognition,
Congaing oneself, the word and the secrets of the spirit.
It is an endless precess.
«
1997
Sole exhibition in "EastGallery", Moscow
Paints the first portrait of a student of the Moscow Conservatory Hibla Gerzmava
«Сопрано Хибла Герзмава»
холст, масло, Москва, 1997
Sole exhibition in HS Art Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
Sole exhibition in Central House of Artist, Moscow
Paints a portrait of Galina Danelia, director of "Pan-Dan" gallery.
Portrait of Galina Danelia
oil on canvas, Moscow
Paints a series of bottles' paintings, one of which appears later in the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art.
Untitled
oil on canvas, Moscow
Collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art
1998
In Moscow in Pan-Dan Gallery there takes place the personal exhibition "Silence Poetry"
Solo exhibition in MARTin Gallery, Switzerland.
Пишет портреты.
Art-Salon '98, Pan-Dan Gallery, Manege, Moscow
"Contemporary art of the North Caucasus", State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow
"Mosaic of the twentieth century", Pan-Dan Gallery, CHA, Moscow
Art-Manege'98, Pan-Dan Gallery, Manege, Moscow
выставки
Paints a portrait of the legendary Dr "Tsope", Hutsidze Vakhtang Galaktoinovich.
Tsope
oil on canvas, Moscow
1999
Solo exhibition in Grant Gallery, New-York
In New York meets Tatiana Kolodziej (a Russian art historian, collector, owner of one of the most comprehensive collections of contemporary Russian art, the founder of the fund «Kolodzei Art Foundation»)
Participates in the exhibition Women in Art.
Kolodzei Art Foundation, Friendship Gallery, Washington DC
2000
Solo exhibition in Pan-Dan Gallery, Moscow
Participates in the annual exhibition Art Manege 2000
Participates in the exhibition Women in Art.
Kolodzei Art Foundation, Atrium Gallery, Morris County Administration Building, New Jersey, United States
"Bulldozer Exhibition – then everywhere", Moscow, Gogol Boulevard
2001
Stays at the art-residence Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Paints life portrait of Mme Félix Brunau, the head and the founder of the CitéInternationale des Arts. As an expression of her gratitude, she invites Diana to dinner. Mme Félix Brunausays that Diana is the first artist from the post-Soviet space who visited her at home. She also noted that there are more than two hundred portraits in her collection, the first was painted by Georges Braque, but only Diana's will be put at home.
spring
Portrait of Mme Félix Brunau
oil on canvas, Paris
Visiting Mme Félix Brunau
Paris
autumn
Again arrives in Paris at CitéInternationale des Arts upon invitation of Mme Félix Brunau. Diana completes her stay at CitéInternationale des Arts with a solo exhibition.
Solo exhibition in Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
Ismail Shakov in Diana's studio
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
Maya at Diana's exhibition
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
Diana and Kirill Cheloushkin in Kirill's studio
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
Participates in the annual exhibition Art Manege, Pan-Dan Gallery, Moscow
Galina and Georgy Danelia, Diana Vouba
Manege, Moscow, 2001
Participates in the exhibition "Abstraction in Russia in the twentieth century". The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Diana and her works
The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
2002
Group exhibition: New Identities New Forms Contemporary Russian Women Artists. Kolodzei Art Foundation, Georgetown University Art Galleries, Washington, United States
Solo exhibition, Maliy Vlasyevsky 5, Moscow
2003
Participates in the annual exhibition Art Manege, Moscow
Solo exhibition in MARTin Gallery, Switzerland
Slava Zaitsev and Diana
Manege, Moscow
Diana at a personal exhibition with Martin family
Switzerland
The first retrospective exhibition in the fund supporting, social, cultural and educational programs "Arden", Moscow
Paints a double portrait of the Minister of Health of Kazakhstan with his wife and portraits of their children.
2004
Travels in India for forty days, after which two series are created, "Tetris" and "Ocean City"
Solo exhibtion "Tetris" in Central House of Artist, Moscow
Tuning-fork
oil on canvas. 200x200 cm
2005
Solo exhibition "Ocean City". Central House of Artist, Moscow
2006
Paints the second portrait of the soprano Hibla Gerzmava, Moscow
Group exhibiton Women of the Caucasus, New Manege, Moscow
Soprano Hibla Gerzmava
oil on canvas, 130х95 cm, Moscow
Portrait of Abkhazian
oil on canvas, 140х70 cm, Moscow
Natalia Kolodzei
Through color, shape, line, and space, freely manipulating the textures, Diana Vouba expresses her emotional and intuitive experiences associated with the concept of time, the knowledge of oneself and the world. In a continuous creative process, balancing on the verge of ideas and matter, the artist creates a line, on one side of which there is a subjective and on the other – an external.

On the one hand, her paintings are the remainingtraces of pure energy bursts, on the other - these are the ideas narrowed down to stereo chemical formula. Following the inner feelings, as an independent individual, her creativity materializes in color, texture, as well as in the ability of shape to invent and organize space, where all these elements begin to interact on the surface plane.
Creates a series of "iconostasis", Moscow
Paints a series of "Red Moscow", Moscow
2007
Group exhibition "Moscow - New York. A simultaneous", National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow
Creates a series of geometric abstraction "Spectrum"
Meets with the legendary architect Oscar Niemeyer and dedicates to him a series of drawings about Rio de Janeiro.
Paint a portrait of Fasil Iskander
At the invitation of the Consul General of the Russian Federation A. Labetskaya goes to Rio de Janeiro, where she continues to paint the series of "Red Moscow" for decorating of a building of the Consulate General.
2008
Solo exhibition "Geometry of Rose", Vincent Gallery, Moscow

Group exhibition «Moscow Underground», Solyanka Gallery, Moscow
Solo exhibition «Abkhazia:New_Generation», Central House of Artist, Moscow
2009
Solo exhibition "Resonance of forms",
Theatre "School of Dramatic Art", Moscow
2010
Begins to work on the series "Contemporaries"
Completes the series of paintings "Dynamic Symmetry"
2011
Solo exhibiton "Red Moscow",
Panopticum Inutero, Artplay, Moscow
Group exhibiton «3 x Heimat Kaukasus», GAViK, Berlin
Creative trip to Krasnoyarsk and Geleznogorsk at the invitation of ROSATOM within the paining symposium "Nuclear Renaissance". Paints a portrait of Sergei Pavlovich Kuchin (an engineer-geologist, writer, winner of the USSR Council of Ministers Prize) and a series of small landscapes paintings "Siberia"
Paints a series of "Rhythms of cosmic frequencies"
2012
Creates a series of large paintings, "The Silence Dimension." Later the composer Iraida Yusupova composed the music for the six paintings in this series.
2013
Group Exhibition "Color Scores", Kultproekt Gallery, Moscow
2014
Solo exhibition "The Silence Dimension", Erarta Gallery, Saint Petersburg
Creates a large series of works "The Way Home" and a series of small works "Walking in the sky"
Group exhibition Sub Rosa,
State Darwin Museum, Moscow
Group exhibition "20 years later", Central House of Artist, Moscow
Solo exhibiton "Winter practice. Great in art",
Ground Gallery, Moscow
2015
Winter practice / Art-Perm. Museum of Soviet naive, Perm
Federico García Lorca: between color and word. Instituto Cervantes, Moscow
Yellow submarine. Central House of Artist, Moscow
Promise of the landscape / Art-Perm. Museum of Modern Art PERMM, Perm
East - West. Na Kashirke Gallery, Moscow
Works on the project "City - Alphabet" that arose in the process of rethinking the life-building ideas of the Russian avant-garde. In parallel with that Diana works on stylization of the traditional Caucasian costume that is embodied in a collection of porcelain figurines «Highlander»
2016
Group exhibition "Homage". Central House of Artist, Moscow
Group exhibition "Red and Black", Na Kashirke Gallery, Moscow
Group exhibition "Augmented reality". Smolensk, Russia
Group exhibition "Artists in Times of Change". The exhibition hall of the Moscow Union of Artists, Moscow
Group exhibition "Actual Russian: habitat". The State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia, Moscow
Group exhibition "Co-Author", "New Wing" Gogol House, Moscow
Eagle
acrylic on wood, Moscow
Moscow Ring: new way, Museum of Moscow