ABOUT

Anna Speshilova (born 1988) is an artist and illustrator from Moscow.

She started studying fine arts at the age of 6. In 2008, she received her first degree in Design. Then she started working as a designer at the Moscow production of ceremonial clothing.

In 2010-2016, she studied at the Institute of Graphics and Book Art of the Higher School of Printing and Media Industry of Moscow Polytechnic University.
She graduated as a graphic artist, and gained a diverse experience in the field of graphic and printing techniques, easel painting, book illustration, typography and layout, project activities.

In 2016, she began collaborating with publishers as an illustrator.

Since 2007, she has also been conducting personal independent artistic work.

Since 2014, she has been participating in art and illustration exhibitions and festivals.
In 2019, a personal exhibition "Stories" was held in Moscow.

Her paintings are in private collections in different countries of the world: Russia, Norway, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Romania, Ukraine, Canada, USA, Australia, Hong Kong.

In my work, I most often tell stories based on real experience through magical images.
The themes of fairy tales in the modern world and unity with wild nature have always been especially close to me. I am fascinated by the contrast of the combination of opposites: nature and home, human and wild animals, comfort and freedom, modernity and history. This duality is one of the most interesting things for me, because I see it in the essence of all living things, and I like to find unexpected connections when developing plots.
The artistic way of exploring the world seems to me especially interesting for its contact with the irrational inside us. This method is able to tell about the experiences in an intuitive language of symbols, avoiding literality.
The real impressions reflected in the fairy-tale plots are interpreted by each viewer in their own way and become the beginning of an interesting dialogue: I am always fascinated by the unpredictability of the path the viewer is following.

MAIN EXHIBITIONS

2024 Contemporary Art Festival “A Wild Tale”, Altai

2024 Group exhibition “In a Distant Kingdom”, Moscow

2022 Group exhibition "Beauty of life", Shenzhen (Pingshan), China

2021 Group exhibition "She", Moscow

2019 Personal exhibition "Stories", Moscow

2018 Biennial of Graphics and Illustration "Book as an Art", St. Petersburg

2017 Group exhibition "Swedish Literature through the eyes of Russian illustrators", Sweden

2017 International Book Illustration Festival "Berrywaterfest", Moscow

2016 Group exhibition "Mosgraphics", Moscow

2016 Group exhibition "Fantasy. Reality" of the “In Move” project, Moscow

2015 Group exhibition of the III International Youth Competition of Ex Libris, Vladimir (laureate of the competition)

Main Publications

2023 Illustrations for the cover of the musical album of the "Razano Pero" band, Serbia

2022 Art calendar for 2023, self-published

2022 Illustrations for the literary calendar by Labyrinth bookshop, Russia

2021 Illustrations for the book "The Story of Maria Merian", The Good and the Beautiful publishing house, USA

2020 Art calendar for 2021, KP publishing house, Russia

2019 Illustrations for the book "Der Rote Wassermann", by Gudrun Pausewang, KompasGid publishing house, Russia

2018 Participation in the charity project "Warm Poems", Russia

2017 Illustration for the cover of the book "Le Vergini Fiorite" by Laura Rimola, Pettirosso Edizioni, Italy

2016 Publication of works on the cover and pages of the "Artbookmania"magazine, Russia