Jolie Alien. a-s-t-r-a

Jolie Alien was born in 2002 in Moscow. She is a student at Joseph Backstein’s Institute of Contemporary Art. The artist works with catchy images, simple plots, framed compositions, and expressive drawings. Each of her pieces is introspective, connected with personal memories, which partly explains her visual language, which weaves surreal images, simple geometric patterns, and eye-catching spray-painted lettering. Jolie’s work is reminiscent of a wall that has been covered with graffiti for a long time: figures float on top of each other, creating a collage effect. Jolie explores the subject of youth being unavailable to the adult world. 

The artist completes her studies at the Moscow Institute of Art and Industry, combining them with a career in the fashion industry by participating in fashion shows for brands such as Valentino, Off-White, Jil Sander, Paco Rabanne, Prada, Viviene Westwood, Simone Rocha, etc. She stars in international advertising campaigns for Mango, Fendi, and Adidas. The rights to use the image of her work titled “Whirpool” have been acquired by Mango for use in the release of their T-shirt collection worldwide. She has been interviewed by Document Journal, Vogue, InStyle, Elle, and models.com about her work. She’s currently preparing to start her education at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. 

Many people find Jolie's paintings’ complementary colors, expressive drawing, and collage compositions to be chaotic, but this confusion and ambiguity is what sets them apart from others. As an artist, she values and puts perception above reflection; the intuitiveness and even a certain automaticity of her paintings make them related to art brut and works by Jean Dubuffet. Jolie’s language is extremely subjective and even introspective. Perhaps only classical techniques can now allow artists the luxury of speaking about themselves and recording the reality around them as an enduring impression. 

Her works are part of numerous collections in Russia, China, Japan, Belgium, and the United States. She lives and works between Moscow, London, and Tokyo.