What if I.. / Что если я... (2020) Painting by Marina Letty

Marina Letti (Petrova, born 1982) is a Russian artist. She was born and works in Cherepovets. She studied at the art and graphic department of Cherepovets State University.Marina works with the theme of self-identification as a woman and a person, having gone through denial and rejection of her body and essence. Drawing on the experience of living in a male monastery in India and an attempt to suppress the feminine nature in herself, the artist faced many internal conflicts that began to destroy her from the inside, and subsequently influenced the choice of the direction of the subject of her work.

Since 2021, she has been a regular participant in group exhibitions, including international ones. Her paintings are in the private collection of Rossotrudnichestvo of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ankara (Turkey) and in Russia. Since 2024, she has been studying with art curator and art critic Maria Sedoshenko on the program "Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Contemporary Art". 

Three years of living in a male monastery in India, completely immersed in spirituality, became an invaluable experience for me, where I went through different stages of rejecting myself as a woman, not accepting my body and considering myself inferior to men simply by the fact of birth. Having encountered certain dogmas that dictated to me external angles of internal self-perception, I eventually rejected most of them, and began to collect myself piece by piece. Directly living through such an experience formed the basis for choosing the topic of self-identification, which I have been studying for 4 years now. 

Working now on a series about internal traumas, I take my entire life - from childhood to the present moment. In my research, I look for the beginning, and trace how my parents and the opinion of society reflected on my development, and how life in the monastery influenced me. Asking questions - who am I? What does it mean to be a woman in our world, and where can I find support? - I do not focus only on myself. I suggest that the viewer ask these questions themselves, turning to themselves from within.My art goes through experiments with different mediums. In addition to the usual acrylic and oil, I work with fabric, threads, use thorns, wood, paper, wax, etc. Many of my works are characterized by cuts and punctures - inflicted internal wounds require their detection, and then overcoming the pain and restoring their integrity by stitching with threads. Depicting a naked body, I very directly show how defenseless and vulnerable a woman can be in front of society. With the help of texture and three-dimensional works made from plaster bandages, papier-mâché and other materials, I overcome the space of the canvas to further immerse the viewer in the work, give a more tactile perception, show the fragility of human nature.

• Nationality: RUSSIA
• Date of birth : 1982
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Professional Artist Russian Contemporary Artists