About the artist:

Diana Radeiko is a prominent artist, whose personal exhibition “Face Control” took place in July, in Riga. Her artistic career began far before Diana started calling herself an artist – she started developing her style and passion for art during high school, whilst participating in different contests. Diana deeply believes in freedom of word, freedom of thought and freedom of creation. She thinks that people themselves are the only creators and motivators of their words, the concepts, the actions. They are the only creators of themselves and their own work. Diana refuses to give any sort of definitions for anything in the world, and she truly presumes that all is nothing but a product of imagination. This is precisely why she was made to be an artist – the only way in which Diana can truly express herself is through visual arts and cultures. Describing her work as “new”, “bold” and calling it “the new rock’n’roll”, Diana is drawing viewer’s attention to the conditions and moods of a depicted character. She urges the spectator to open up for something that Diana calls “aesthetically- geometric pleasure”. In her paintings, the artist is trying to find magical patterns through an exploration of facial features. She is wagering the colors and intertwining them between the complex lines of her thoughtful and soulful characters. Unlike most traditional artists, Diana does not have a conventional art education. She studied to be an economist, but she also participated in various courses in decorating, fine art and fashion at the best schools around the globe – including schools in Russia, Latvia, Spain, and England. For Diana, her art never comes from any direct, predetermined knowledge, but rather from improvisation of thoughts, sentiments, intuition and chances. The one and only exception to this rule, the only prearranged path that Diana permits herself to follow is a trail, structure and framework of Indian yantras. Diana is hugely interested in human faces; she is constantly trying to follow and to grasp the uniformity or anti-uniformity of forms and lines. In these patterns, she manages to find both – harmony and chaos, and she follows this mesmerizing journey in order to discover the genuine unity. The paintings that are on view at the “Face Control” exhibition, as most of Diana’s works of art, are structured in a very careful, almost graphic-like manner. The bright and memorable silhouettes are portrayed against a strong, relief-like background. Diana’s figures all have strikingly deep features, especially eyes – always a little bit sad, a little bit nostalgic for something fascinating. The eyes are what makes the people depicted within the portraits truly alive, they simultaneously depict the essence of the character, as well as the emotional conditions of the artist. Diana is not only portraying such famous individuals as Madonna, Bowie, and Rihanna, but also faces of strangers – for instance, children, or a man selling bags. She is fascinated by the lines. Some of her paintings would remind the spectator of Louise Bourgeois’ red, or a chin from some portrait by Francis Bacon, yet, it is indisputable that Diana’s style is unique and visionary. Mixing color, form and lines, Diana is exhibiting a cautious, almost archeological investigation of faces, which cannot leave the spectator uninspired.