Viktorija Bulava was born into an artistic family in Riga, Latvia, during the period of Soviet rule. Early on, Viktorija (pronounced “Victoria”) was identified as a child prodigy. She began formal art studies at the age of 12, only one of a dozen students across Latvia winning admission to the Rosentals School of Art in Riga. By the end of the first year, she had been selected for her first solo art exhibit.
As a young art student, Viktorija received multiple awards, most notably the Soviet Union preeminent art school juried competition devoted to the subject of “October Revolution.”
Continuing at the Art Academy of Latvia, she earned the highest monthly government stipend. She was selected as the best student of the year in 1995 by the International Art Association. The Latvian Cultural Foundation also awarded her a cash prize for significant contribution to Latvian art that same year. In 1996 she participated in the world-wide competition “Earth and Water” organized by UNESCO Center of Visual Art in France. Her fine arts training in Riga culminated in a Master of Fine Arts from the Art Academy of Latvia in 1996. As “Best Graduate of 1996,” she received the Sipolins Foundation grant which included a trip to the US for a one-woman show at the Latvian Cultural Center in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
Appreciation of her paintings led to Viktorija’s introduction to galleries in the US. The quality of her work is confirmed by its inclusion in noted private collections in Canada, Denmark, Finland and Germany as well as the US. Her work also appears in the Citadelle Art Foundation in Texas and the La Maison de Art collection in Sarasota.
Viktorija’s classical training and Eastern European background blend the Western influence of Riga, the “Little Paris of the Thirties,” (with its preeminent Art Nouveau style) with post-World War II Soviet realism. The results are mixed media canvases with precise draftsmanship and complex techniques that combine the classical rules of good composition with modern kinetic background styles. Her subjects delight and engage with a glimpse of motion and sensuality. Her work exemplifies the gifted talent of history’s most masterful figure painters.
You can see Viktorija's work displayed on the piano in the video below that has been viewed more than 26 million times.
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