Born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1956, Arina Malukova immigrated to New York in 1975. Here, she was instantly drawn to the dynamism of the city and vibrant contemporary art scene, and she set her sights on becoming an artist. She entered the BFA Program for Painting at the Pratt Institute in 1977. In 1979, Arina was awarded a Ford Foundation Award for her achievements in Painting while continuing her studies. Prior to her Graduation from Pratt in 1981, she held an internship at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, working on preparations for an exhibit featuring the collection of George Kostakis. After graduation, she began working and exhibiting her Paintings and Collages in prestigious galleries of NewYork City and throughout the country. Her style evolved as she continued to work and experiment with various techniques including wax (encaustic painting), calligraphy and collage. Over the next decades, she continued as a working artist, and in 2013 she received an Associates Degree in Photography from the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology, further broadening the scope of her paintings to include photoshop and digital images. Arina continues to evolve her work and exhibit in New York where she lives with her family.

My name is Arina Malukova. I was born in Kiev but for the last four decades have been living and working in New York.
My work is about movement, color and light. In my paintings I create imaginary, mystic landscapes with exotic animals and fantastic characters.

To explore new ideas, I sketch and create paper collages. This process of exploration helps me to define and finalize my ideas for future paintings. My visual experiments nev-er stops and I am always surprised by the outcome of each work.

Japanese culture and fashion, people on streets, contemporary artists and photogra-phers inspire me.
Art is my profession and a biggest passion. There is a whole world of ideas to explore!