Maya Dvalishvili

Maya Dvalishvili is a resident of Kiev, Ukraine. Born in Georgia while it was then a part of the USSR, she was accepted to art school for study but after the fall of the Soviet Union and Georgia swept up in the turmoil and wars, there was no time for her to express or practice her art.

For a year Maya and her family lived in a time of war and strict curfews, but eventually were able to relocate to Kiev, Ukraine. Due to her last name and origin, she was unable to find a job or be received into any universities. So she decided to attend master painting classes, engaging the oriental ...

Maya Dvalishvili is a resident of Kiev, Ukraine. Born in Georgia while it was then a part of the USSR, she was accepted to art school for study but after the fall of the Soviet Union and Georgia swept up in the turmoil and wars, there was no time for her to express or practice her art.

For a year Maya and her family lived in a time of war and strict curfews, but eventually were able to relocate to Kiev, Ukraine. Due to her last name and origin, she was unable to find a job or be received into any universities. So she decided to attend master painting classes, engaging the oriental style into Ukrainian patterns.

She has worked in glass painting, as a cartoonist, and a full-time journalist, but painting and expressing herself through her art is her lifestyle. Maya has always enjoyed 60s jazz and Audrey Hepburn movies, drawn to the style of the time, the feel, the cars, the mason scenes, the conversations. While watching the movie The Pink Panther, Maya was inspired and discovered her art style, which includes painting girls and guys in retro clothing, and vintage cars driving through city streets.

Maya feels like she should have lived in the 60s era but does so by capturing that time in her paintings. She hopes that the feeling of excitement and joy is expressed through her paintings for others to experience. Ukrainian art experts have compared her to Pirosmani, which is probably due to their common origin and unique naive perspective in art. Some may categorize her work as “pop art,” but there really is no definition for what she does.