Anna Zakharova was born in 1985 in Moscow in the family of a sculptor, artist and poet, Viktor Zakharov. Anna began painting at the age of 4 with gouache and watercolors on huge pieces of wallpaper, specially cut for her by her father.
The rebellious creative environment of the late 80s, early 90s, the girl grew up in, allowed her to reflect boldly on topics that were complex not only for her age and as a result create works with provocative titles such as "God’s House and Spoon", “Virgin Mary in red stockings”, etc. The father also instilled in his daughter love of fairy tales, history, fantasy and poetry. This experience was reflected in superpowers of the heroes in her adult works.
However, after a childhood saturated with painting, a 20-year interval followed without painting, associated with the difficult life trials of the family. During this time, Anna got a higher engineering education at Moscow Aviation Institute.
Anna returned to painting only in 2012, after a spinal injury. It became a way of recovery for her. The artist began to create color watercolor abstractions on paper. Peering at them, she began to distinguish completed plots, which at first she outlined with a contour right on the abstraction. Anna found many plots in one abstraction, and considered it rational to transfer the found plots to separate sheets, and leave the abstractions as a library. This became her author's technique. The source for the plots that Anna scans is numerous books and her strong impressions of the world around her: from music to surfing in the ocean. The purpose of the artist's works is to engage the viewer, to ignite his imagination.
Anna's first and personal exhibition was in 2016, in Moscow in the Punktum cultural center with the author's theme "Plastic fairy tale of the XXI century." The exhibition included her illustrations for the novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel" by F. Rabelais. In the same 2016, Anna illustrated M. Bulgakov's novel “The Master and Margarita”. In 2017, for the competition of the V. Mayakovsky Museum in Moscow for the 100th anniversary of the poetry book "Kofta fata" by V. Mayakovsky, Anna made a computer design of this poetry book and watercolor illustrations.
The surfing experience in the Atlantic Ocean became an impetus for the creation in 2019 of a huge, 8-meter fabric installation "The Flow. Blood of the Earth”. It is a call for awareness of the problem scale of non-degradable garbage in the ocean. To immerse the viewer in this theme, in the installation Anna used ocean color fabrics tactilely reminiscent dolphin skin. The artist's watercolors fixed on the fabric provide a symbolic excursion from the birth of the planet Earth to modern mankind. In her installation, Anna also uses the ocean sound as a soundtrack to create the effect to the viewer of being on the ocean shore and feeling the power, the scale of the element. As the artist declares: "the paradox is that with all its power the ocean as an ecosystem cannot handle garbage, he needs human help."
The work of the artist "The Flow. Blood of the Earth” was applied for the Arte Laguna Prize 2020. The concept and photographs of the artwork are available on the Arte Laguna World platform.
Currently, the artist is working on her interdisciplinary eco-art project "The Belt of the Epos" to create giant art objects around the Earth as manifestos of the problem of non-degradable garbage in industrial zones, near landfills, shelf zones.
Anna lives and works in Moscow.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 — Punktum cultural center. “Plastic fairy tale of the XXI century”. Moscow. Russia.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 — Alpert Gallery. “Moscow vacation”. Moscow. Russia.
2021 — ArtHub Gallery. “DON`T TOUCH!”. Ivanovo. Russia.
ARTWORKS IN PUBLIC SPACE
“Dance”. Restaurant "Guests". St. Petersburg. Russia.
"Kiss in the Valley". Restaurant "Guests". St. Petersburg. Russia.
MEDIA PUBLICATIONS
“Plastic fairy tale of the XXI century. ARTUZEL. 10.05.2016
“Seeking inspiration”. CITYCELEBRITY. 25.06.2016
