RESIDENTS
ALEXEY YURECHKO. PAINTER/EDUCATOR
Experienced artist and tutor in academic drawing, painting, and composition with over 10 years of teaching practice. I started teaching when I was still a student at the Repin Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, and over the years I’ve worked with a wide range of materials including oil, tempera, gouache, and watercolor.
My works are held in state museums in Russia and in private collections in Russia, the USA, Italy, and Germany. Over the years I’ve created more than a hundred realist works, along with several wall paintings and murals, and also took part in restoration work at the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral.
As a teacher, I pay special attention to the processes of visual perception and its influence on drawing and painting.
This approach has helped me train around 300 artists, from complete beginners to experienced students, in the tradition of realist academic training, both in Russia and internationally. From 2015 to 2023, I worked as a leading tutor and developped the curriculum for the educational project TUT iskusstvo (St. Petersburg). During that time I taught figure and portrait (drawing and painting), and led a course in figurative composition. Over those years, I refined my approach and built a clear teaching methodology for conducting artistic work.
EDUCATION.
Academy of Arts. I.E. Repin in St. Petersburg.
Artist-painter, Specialist degree (2016)
Ural State University in Yekaterinburg, Faculty of Psychology. Bachelor of Psychology (2000)
ANDREI PIANKOVSKIY. PAINTER/EDUCATOR
Art has always been my key to understanding the world — a prism through which I perceive life in images.
My work is deeply connected to the human experience, with portraiture as my primary genre. I find it nearly limitless in expressive potential. Even through seemingly minimal means, I strive to convey depth of emotion and my inner vision.
At the heart of my art lies a love for beauty, color, and harmony — and a desire to share that love with the viewer.
Born and raised in St. Petersburg. During school years Andrei was actively engaged in fencing, received the 1st category in the sword discipline. Studied at the Herzen University at the Faculty of Fine Arts (2012–2014). Graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts named after Repin (2015–2021). Studied in the workshop of Professor Pesikov V.S. Before entering, he worked for one year in the studio of Trepak S. V.
His works are in private collections in Russia, Spain, Australia, Portugal, China, USA, Canada, England, Germany and France. He was repeatedly awarded the Council's praise for academic excellence. Since 2021, an employee of the art workshop of the Russian Academy of Arts under the leadership of Vladimir Simonovich Pesikov. Since 2022, Andrei has been working as a painting and drawing teacher at the Florence Academy of Classical Arts.
MILA ZHIZNEVSKAYA. PAINTER/EDUCATOR
Mila Zhiznevskaya is a painter working in the genre of contemporary realism.
Born in a small coastal town in Russia, she moved to The Netherlands in her early teens. Determined to pursue art professionally, she sought out mentors across different disciplines to deepen her understanding of academic fundamentals. Her training included several years at the Dutch Atelier of Realist Art, followed by a training in the Russian academic method under Alexey Yurechko, the founder of Accademia Nuova.
Mila currently lives and works in Haarlem (NL), where she continues to develop her own artistic language.
ROBIN SAIKIA. EDUCATOR
THE MAKING OF ART
Robin Saikia was born in 1962 and educated at Winchester College and Merton College, Oxford. He also studied painting under the Florentine master painter Roberto Ciabani. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in London. His numerous publications include The Venice Lido and Drink & Think Venice, both of them cultural and epicurean explorations of his favourite city. Robin is currently director and curator of Vert de Venise Contemporary Art, a popular gallery in the Dorsoduro district of Venice.
IULYA GONKOVA. EDUCATOR
FORMAL PLASTIC COMPOSITION
I am both an artist, a teacher, and a lifelong student. I have been learning my whole life and can’t stop. For me, art is the perfect language of knowledge: of the world, of myself, of others, of great beauty, and of the exchange of human experience in its purest form.For more than twelve years, I have been engaged in research and practice within art education, exploring the space between people and art, and artistic creativity as a phenomenon. This ongoing inquiry is at the heart of my professional life. I value working with different people, with different levels of experience, each bringing their own understanding of what drawing is. I especially enjoy diverse groups, where differences become a source of growth and where everyone’s development feeds the whole.I am especially pleased to teach a course on composition, which I consider the central discipline that unites all genres and media within visual art. I believe that the impulse to create is fundamental to human nature, and it is an honor to support others in developing their compositional thinking, because joint creativity is a great power.