In recent years soft pastels have emerged as Anzhelika Lebedeva’s preferred medium. Discovered during her thesis at the Academy of Florence, Lebedeva experimented with pastels on various surfaces, from raw canvas to sandpaper, unveiling its unique potential. Unlike oil colours, pastels provided Lebedeva with immediacy, freeing her from predefined processes and timelines. This medium resonates deeply with Lebedeva’s temperament and artistic vision, offering an expressive freedom that imparts aesthetic values unique to pastels. The symbiotic relationship between art and its environment is fundamental to her practice, and the matt finish of the pastels erases the distance between the observer and the artwork, making it an integral part of the surrounding space.

Anzhelika Lebedeva uses both her artistic practice and academic research to explore an individual’s inner world; looking for their hidden fears, desires, and dreams, in order to discover how one can survive and find harmony within the world around them. Lebedeva’s art is closely related to the theme of existentialism; exploring the boundaries between the natural and the artificial, putting up the viewer to a reality, where every action and gesture, even the most ordinary, acquire a key meaning where the gaze is turned inward.