Artworks by Alfia Koral

Born in Russia, and now based in London, Alfia Koral is a contemporary oil painter whose practice combines classical painting traditions with an analytical, research-driven approach to the medium itself.

Her artistic education began in childhood at a formal art school and continued through academic studies in drawing and painting. Alongside her artistic training, she qualified as a telecommunications engineer, a background that continues to inform her analytical approach to painting. She later studied art history and contemporary painting at the HSE Art and Design School in Moscow while independently pursuing an ongoing study of traditional Old Masters oil painting techniques through specialist workshops, masterclasses, technical literature and sustained studio practice. This combination of academic training, independent research and analytical thinking continues to shape her artistic practice.

For Alfia, a painting is never simply an image on a surface. She thinks of it as a layered structure in which colour, light and matter interact across successive strata of paint. Whether working with transparent glazes, dense impasto or expressive palette-knife passages, she builds each work upon an underlying chromatic foundation that continues to influence the final image through optical interaction, texture and partially revealed layers.

Oil paint became her chosen medium because of its exceptional capacity for complexity. Its transparency, opacity, depth and slow working process allow her to investigate how colour evolves through layering and how paint can recreate the physical behaviour of different materials, the sensation of depth and the experience of light.

Her paintings explore a wide range of subjects, from still life and landscape to architecture, but they are united by the same inquiry: how can the internal construction of a painting deepen our perception of the visible world? Whether studying the translucent structure of fruit, the geometry of Mediterranean architecture or the atmosphere of a landscape, each series becomes an investigation into the relationship between material, space and perception.

Her work is held in private collections internationally, and she continues to collaborate with galleries and online art platforms worldwide.

EDUCATION

2017, 2020 HSE Art and Design School, Moscow, courses "Introduction to the History of Art", "Contemporary Art

2019 - 2020 St. Petersburg Art School "Oil painting", Course of Traditional Old Masters oil painting techniques

2017 St. Petersburg Art School "Artist Online", Academic painting course based on the practices of the leading art universities of St. Petersburg

2012 Art school "Art and Craft", Ufa, Oil painting technique course

2006 - 2008 Modern Art and Design School "Bohemica", Ufa, Courses of Academic drawing and painting

1992 - 1995 Ufa Children's Fine Art School No.2 named after A.E. Tyulkin, Basic training in painting and drawing, art history, sculpture

AWARDS

2023 "Architecture of the World" award, Baroque Hall Srem Museum, Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia

2023 "Still Life Expo" award, Gallery of Modern Art "Art Commune", Moscow, Russia

2022 "Talent of Russia" award, The New Tretyakov Gallery,Moscow, Russia

2017-2021 "Rosneft Lights up the Stars" festival award, Ufa, Russia

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022 "Autumn impressions", Art Space "Metronome", Ufa, Russia

2021 "Winter stories", Ice Palace "Ufa Arena", Ufa, Russia

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2023 "Architecture of the World", "Landscapes of the World" Baroque Hall Srem Museum, Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia

2023 Secret Postcard Show, Cupola Contemporary Gallery, Sheffield, UK

2023 Still Life Expo, Gallery of Modern Art "Art Commune", Moscow, Russia

2022 Talent of Russia, The New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

2022 Starfall, Zdes na Taganke Gallery, curated by Ksenia Gorbatyuk, Moscow, Russia

2018-2021 VIII-XI festivals "Rosneft Lights up the Stars" art exhibitions in Tinkoff Hall concert complex, and in Bashkortostan State Concert Hall, Ufa, Russia