Vogue Russia Jan 2022
models
Model Jolie Alien Is Russia’s Youngest Rising Artist
BY
January 27, 2022
Photo by Alexey Kiselve
There’s a changing of the guard in fashion and culture. Gen Z creators are pushing the conversation forward in ways both awe-inspiring and audacious. Our latest project, Youthquake, invites you to discover how these artists, musicians, actors, designers, and models are radically reimagining the future.
Jolie Alien (Jenia Makarova) is no stranger to the modeling scene. The 21-year-old Russian model has walked the runways of Valentino, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Simone Rocha, has appeared in campaigns for Fendi and Adidas, and has created artwork for Loewe. While the young model has become a fixture on the runway, Alien has also become one of her country’s youngest rising artists. Her artwork is packed with color, sometimes drawing directly from her experiences on the runway: A painting titled “Fashion Week,” features two faceless, overlapping figures on canvas, in another, “Way Out,” we see an abstract subject situated inside a birdcage. So far, her pieces have have landed at galleries around the world, including her hometown of Moscow as well as London and Tokyo.
Alien, who has been diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia, saw art as a way to express herself. She began painting at 15, creating a portrait for her father, after her two grandmothers passed away. The piece included various abstract faces on a yellow canvas with the phrase “empty below” in Russian. “For me, drawing is a kind of salvation,” she says.
Over the years, her inspirations have ranged from Marina Abramovic to Dadaists, who she says have “a good harshness for our time,” as well as the Russian painter Mikhail Vrubel. (“I like how he has his attitude with any object and can give a glass a different feeling,” she says.) While Alien is known for her use of vibrant color, she is now currently experimenting with using solely black and white in her art. One of her biggest breakout moments was not with a gallery but rather with the brand Mango. In 2019, the brand tapped her to create a T-shirt, an abstract version of a whirlpool, which she then modeled in a campaign.
While Alien imagines her pieces will find a home at New York’s Museum of Modern Art or the Tate Gallery in London, for right now, she enjoys the connection she feels through creating art. “Art is now part of my life. It’s like reading a book or drinking a coffee every morning,” she says. “I don’t know how to continue without it.”
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