Artist Statement
The female figure in the history of painting has long existed in relation to the external gaze, constructed as an object for reading, interpretation, and appropriation. In the twentieth century, this model began to break down. My practice continues this shift while redirecting its vector. I approach the female figure as a form of inner sovereignty, inaccessible to appropriation by the gaze. I work with the nude as a form stripped of social codes. Clothing introduces context, status, and narrative. Nudity removes these structures and leaves the figure in a state of bodily autonomy. In my paintings, the figure does not engage, does not offer itself for interpretation, and does not produce an emotional response. It is not oriented toward the expectations of the viewer. My method is shaped by an architectural background. I treat the body as a construction, where posture and internal tension assemble the form. Space interacts with the figure and reinforces its autonomy. Meaning is not fixed and cannot be reduced to a single reading. The viewer is confronted not with an image, but with the limits of their own gaze.
MY BIO
Anastasiia Skisova is a contemporary artist working primarily in painting. Born in Russia, she received a classical art education and later graduated from the Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, where she studied architecture and spatial design. She currently lives and works in Miami, USA. Architectural thinking has become an essential part of her artistic language, expressed through attention to compositional structure, rhythm, light, and the relationship between the body and surrounding space. Skisova's practice is centered around the female figure, approached as an autonomous form that resists possession by the gaze. Nudity in her works is stripped of familiar social coding and removed from traditional modes of display and interpretation, becoming a self-sufficient visual structure. Working primarily in oil, the artist combines figuration with fragmented form, rapid gesture, and painterly incompleteness. Her paintings explore inner distance, bodily memory, emotional tension, and the condition of presence. Collectors of Anastasiia Skisova's works are located across the United States, Europe, and Russia.
Education
2005–2010 — Classical academic training in fine arts. Children's Art School, Voronezh, Russia.
2011–2016 — Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Voronezh, Russia. Architecture and spatial design.
2026 — Art Communication School by Julia Sysalova. Institute of the Mediterranean Culture, Athens, Greece.
