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STEPPING OUT OF SIBERIAN DRABNESS INTO COLOR SATURATION



Meet Siberian Ex-pats and Artists, Inna & Alex Deriy, now residents of Naperville, IL

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When one thinks of Siberia, splashes of unbridled color flung across bucolic landscapes doesn’t immediately come to mind.


However, it was that very starvation for color and the striving to fill her palette with it, that drove Siberian ex-pat, Inna Deriy, to create artwork that literally blooms right off the wall.

Ably assisted by her talented husband, Alex, these two Naperville, IL residents have become known for vastly improving upon a unique, one-of-a-kind look coined, “Liquid Mosaic” that originated in Russia.


Inna and Alex have known each other from childhood, grew up in the same Siberian city of Novosibirsk, and attended the same school. They explain that most of Siberia's climate is subarctic with a short growing season and challenging temperatures. Their surrounding landscape was a dreary mix of dull whites and tired grays. As a child, Inna’s artistic nature yearned for color. Luckily, she grew up surrounded by the vibrant rock specimens her geologist parents collected from exotic locales around the world and brought home.


“Our apartment was like a geological museum with gems and crystals and so many other amazing items they mined,” Inna observed.


She later attended art school and interned at a mosaic workshop where she learned how to design and create pictures inlaid entirely of exotic rocks. While still in Siberia, Inna began experimenting how to create a mosaic look without rocks. She mixed pigmented polymers into resin and let the resin flow freely within segmented areas on canvas or other substrate such as slate, rock, glass or wood. She stirs the substance with sticks and needles to achieve a design that ultimately may take eight hours or more to dry. She then adds many more layers of color to achieve saturation intensity, texture and depth.


Inna says, “My inspiration is nature. I love to travel, camp, hike – go off the beaten path. While visiting Hawaii we even slept on the beach and saw whales jumping – it was an amazing experience.”


Their work ranges from necklaces priced at $50 to pieces as large as 5-ft by 9-ft at a cost of several thousand dollars.


Alex recycles or upcycles found items for their artwork that includes old doors, wooden pallets, and roofing slate. When he’s not assisting Inna, he works full-time as a mechanical engineer and in his spare time plays drums in a jazz band.


Alex came to the U.S. in 1992 and was joined by Inna in 2004. They have two children.

For the past 12 years, their artwork has been featured in Chicago's annual "One-of-a-Kind" show, along with other art shows across the Midwest, New York and Dallas, including the Artprize in Grand Rapids, MI. Their work has also been installed at a well-known corporate headquarters in Verona, WI.

Visit their website at: www.liquidmosaic.com; Email: https://www.liquidmosaic.com

Call: 630-670-0554

They are represented by the following galleries:

Robert Paul Galleries

394 Mountain Rd. Stowe VT.

(802)-253-7282


Gallery On Fifth /EAST WEST

1 Foursquare tip

9115 Strada Pl, Naples, FL


Gallerie Veronique

11364 Montgomery Rd. Cincinnati, OH


Butch's Drydock Gallery

Holland, MI Drydock Gallery

44E. 8th Street


Armstrong- DeGraaf International

Fine Art Gallery

403 Water St, Saugatuck, MI 49453

(269) 857-1882 Saugatuck, MI


Douglas Albert Gallery

107 McAllister Alley Walkway

State College PA 16801 (814) 234-9822

DouglasAlbertGallery.com






Flowers on slate


Mountain scene on slate.




Pendant with necklace.


Fish from wooden pallet pieces.


Inna in their home studio waiting for her latest piece to dry -- a process that takes many hours.






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