A woman stands in a rustic room surrounded by a variety of empty picture frames, gazing at an ornate painting while wearing knee-high snakeskin boots and a blue blouse.

bio

Growing up among medieval spires and Belle Époque façades of Riga deeply shaped my artistic vision, while my Russian heritage, rooted in the Baltic, enriched my cultural identity with layered perspectives. My artistic journey has taken me from England to Florence, where I studied the art of restoration and drew inspiration from the traditions of the Florentine School. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, I went on to teach at the Milan Painting Academy. Today, I work from my Milanese studio, MYARTROOM, a space dedicated to figurative painting and graphic drawing. My practice explores a refined, expressive figurative style — a continuous experimentation with vivid colour, form, and emotion. Each painting emerges from a deep investigation of its subject, where colour becomes both language and feeling, a way to reveal the hidden pulse of human connection.

current exhibitions

The Spirit of Nature

ART Space Gallery, Jomas 86, Jurmala

23.12.2025-31.01.2026

Explore nature as a philosophical space, suspended between reality and sensation, between form and inner movement. The exhibition explores the connection between human beings and the surrounding world, revealed through the language of colour by Valeria Popova, presenting her work alongside other artists.





Explore nature as a philosophical space, suspended between reality and sensation, between form and inner movement. The exhibition explores the connection between human beings and the surrounding world, revealed through the language of colour by Valeria Popova, presenting her work alongside other artists.

There are currently no other exhibitions on but I promise to notify you if you subscribe to the newsletter below…

selected exhibitions

2025

Personal exhibition, Banca Generali, Bari

2024

Serata di beneficenza organizzata in favore dell'associazione "Amo Puglia", Palazzo Cozzolongo, Turi

2022

“Abbracci d’arte”, Casa Dante, Florence, Italy

Tobian Art Gallery, Florence, Italy

Art for real, Boomer Gallery , London, United Kingdom

2020

Final Show, St. Petersburg Art Academy, Florence, Italy

2018

Venice, Centro D’arte San Vidal, Venice Italy

Face to Face, Treeland Gallery, Florence, Italy

Painting Mob “Santa Croce”, La Costellazione, Florence, Italy

Protagonisti d’arte, Gallery D’Arte Sant’Isaia, Bologna, Italy

2018

Venice, Centro D’arte San Vidal, Venice Italy

Face to Face, Treeland Gallery, Florence, Italy

Painting Mob “Santa Croce”, La Costellazione, Florence, Italy

Protagonisti d’arte, Gallery D’Arte Sant’Isaia, Bologna, Italy

2017

Nude figure workshop with Pavel Pokidishev

Jurmala Art Fair, Legend Beach, Latvia

Inspiration, Art center, China

Watercolor workshop with Alesey Bahtin

Arte chiama Arte, Centro D'arte San Vidal, Venice, Italy

2015

Roundabout,"Arrivals": 1st Year Painting Drawing & Printmaking (group exhibition) Plymouth, UK

A person in a long, patterned dress sits on a stone bench against an old, textured stone wall, beside a large black-and-white sketch of a nude figure, with dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves above.

Project for Villa Antinori, Villa d'Este, Italy, 2023

collaborations

2022 / Live Portrait Workshop at Florence Biennale, Italy

/ Art Battle, Villa Vittoria, Florence, Italy

/ Sketch Night Events, Florence, Italy

/ Outdoor Painting Project, Florence, Italy

2017/ Restoration Project by Pietro Dandini, Florence, Italy

2022 / Live Portrait Workshop at Florence Biennale, Italy

/ Art Battle, Villa Vittoria, Florence, Italy

/ Sketch Night Events, Florence, Italy

/ Outdoor Painting Project, Florence, Italy

2017/ Restoration Project by Pietro Dandini, Florence, Italy

education

2017-2020 / Repin St. Petersburg State Academy, Florence

2015-2017 / Russian Academy of Art

2015 / BA Plymouth College of Art

2013 / Photography diploma, Firenze

2011 / Mara Muizniece Riga School of Art

2017-2020 / Repin St. Petersburg State Academy, Florence

2015-2017 / Russian Academy of Art

2015 / BA Plymouth College of Art

2013 / Photography diploma, Firenze

2011 / Mara Muizniece Riga School of Art

artist's statement

My work has been mainly centered on the female figure, somehow there is a sense of belonging and a home feeling when one is traveling or living in a foreign country and bonds with other people, there is solidarity and strength. The core of my paintings have been a way to pay homage to that home that women offer other women despite their differences in culture, education, race, language, age or others. Art is a territory where different nationalities, characters make strangers meet and share. I’m interested in the dialogue that it opens about femininity, assimilation into society, conflict oneself, with stereotypes, with tolerance. This research leads every time to redefining my identity while sharing with others.

Is it possible to have a second motherland? I have been working for years around this question.

My goal is to observe and absorb the feelings, emotions and real nature of the person portrayed, a way to establish a bond through painting to continue the construction of another motherland that is not defined by a country but that is found in the relationship possible in the land of painting. A place where I'm researching the meaning of beauty in today's languages, how it can be defined every time in a different way, and how it can be adapted.

A woman sitting at a marble table with art supplies, surrounded by paintings, in a rustic, eclectic kitchen setting with a white refrigerator and bananas on a vintage cabinet.