Vera Iliatova

2024-2025

Hinting at historical paintings, Vera Iliatova’s compositions are figurative in an archetypal way. In contrast to stylistically similar paintings of the 19th century, Iliatova’s females are posed not for the benefit of the male gaze but for their own self awareness. Recurring in her work is a paused theatrical moment with a cast of female characters portrayed together in an ephemeral, classical space: a garden, a solarium, a forest. Their eyes set somewhere far outside the boundaries of the work and they appear seemingly lost in thought. Each individual figure feels entirely alone and separate, and yet they are together in their solitude.

The exhibition features two of Iliatova’s paintings: Bon-A-Tirer, 2022 and Untitled, 2018. Untitled is accompanied by a series of drawings and prints that explore different outcomes of this same composition.

Vera Iliatova grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia and immigrated to the United States when she was 16.. She received her BA from Brandeis University and an MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale University, with further study at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (2004) and a residency at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program (2007/2008). In 2018, Iliatova was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting. Vera lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and currently is a professor at Sarah Lawerence College and New York Art Academy. Vera Iliatova is represented by Nathalie Karg Gallery in New York City.