My name is Katya Fialkova, and I was born in Moscow but raised in New York City. I lived and worked in several countries in the last ten years, but I still think of New York as home. Not the US, but the city, and specifically the neighborhoods where I lived and spent a lot of time going for walks, daydreaming, working, and drinking (whiskey and bourbon, mostly). After 2+ years in Germany, Berlin now feels like a second home.
I’ve been drawing and making images since I can remember; it was always something I did. My work has changed a lot over the years, and right now it’s about place, landscape, memory, and the layers of inhabitants and structures in one place across time. I think this interest in landscape comes from moving so much, from learning new environments, new languages and cultures. In 2012 I made a series of drawings based on a trip through southern Germany. These days my work is sometimes grounded in real places–rock formations and mountains I’ve climbed or bouldered–and sometimes more fantastical: moonscapes; landscapes I’ve never been to; morphed in the process to somewhere you’ll never find on a map.
Last summer, in 2014, I started a little artist-run pop-up gallery called Sparrow with Berlin-based photographer Marius Flucht. Our aim is to show great yet under-represented artists in the unused and in-between spaces in Berlin. Our first show was in a space in Prenzlauer Berg that used to be bicycle shop and was between tenants. If anyone knows of any spaces like this, do let us know, thank you! 🙂
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