Today we’d like to introduce you to Katerina Levanttar.
Hi Katerina, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I spent years building a career on Wall Street, a part of my life I’m truly grateful for. At some point spending all my time at the office stopped making sense to me. At the same time I certified as a yoga and medication instructor and dived deeper into the questions of Why am I here and what am I doing with the time I’m given on this earth. About eight years ago, I walked away from my finance career completely and focused fully on art.
My practice is surrealist abstraction. I’m drawn to mysticism, human energy, and metaphysics, to paradoxes of this reality and the questions that don’t have clean answers. Why are we here? What’s inside of us? Why our emotions are so strong but we can’t explain them? What is love and kindness?
I paint energy and use color and texture to express what words can’t, to bring into physical form what I download from the collective consciousness. For me, painting works the way music does — you can’t always explain what it means, but it makes you feel like nothing else can.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It was a challenge to learn to be ok to expose my heart and soul on canvas without a guarantee of being understood, no promise of acceptance. That kind of exposure is dangerous for any human being’s survival. It’s a primal instinct to hide and blend in. That’s why we so rarely reveal who we really are to the world.
What I’ve learned since leaving my corporate career is that it’s actually far easier to sit at an office hiding behind a screen, a spreadsheet, or a title. It’s much harder to be vulnerable and show your feelings, hopes, dreams on the canvas for a whole world to judge.
But I’ve mastered that now. My art isn’t made for anyone’s approval; it’s made to reflect what’s inside of me, what I download from somewhere beyond myself, call it higher consciousness, or universal knowledge. Learning to trust that, and to actually have fun with it, is what makes creation such a beautiful and addictive process for me. It’s what I enjoy most in life. I could paint from day till night, because it truly feels like magic. Creating because I want to, and creating whatever I want to. Free to show the world exactly who I am, without expecting approval, without needing to be understood, without trying to fit anywhere.
Abstraction and surrealism don’t explain themselves. It’s not for everyone. This is what I started painting, and I couldn’t stop. So I’d say this kind of art chose me. And I’m grateful to my collectors who see what I see when they look at my paintings. They feel what I feel, and often even much more, trusting their own inner guidance and intuition to find interpretations that go way beyond anything I see in the piece myself.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m known for my large-format paintings, full of color and texture, moving between surrealism and abstraction. I’m also known for my mirror artworks — a collection centered on femininity, mysticism, manifestation, and self-reflection.
I only create when I feel good. Joy is a non-negotiable part of my process; I’m not able to create from any other state, and that energy carries directly into each piece.
One earlier conceptual collection, exploring masculinity and equality through two objects – corn and eggs, recently was transformed into a dress created by a very special designer in Mexico City. It will be debuting at New York Fashion Week this year.
I’m now expanding into sculpture-like objects, bringing abstraction and surrealism from the canvas to playful and colorful pieces. In addition, I’m developing concepts for large-scale installations addressing social issues.
What sets me apart perhaps is that I didn’t come up through a traditional art path. I’m self-taught, and I built this practice after leaving a career on Wall Street. My creations aren’t academic. I channel them into physical reality.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
What I love most about Miami is that it gives me permission to play. It’s easy to become too serious, to forget that joy is allowed. Miami reminds me of it constantly. It gives me permission to be bright, to be fully myself, to actually enjoy my life. I haven’t found that quite the same way in any other city I’ve lived in or visited.
What I’d love to see more of is third places — more coffee shops, art spaces where people can gather, work at, create and connect, and bring their dogs with, spaces where friendships can form and grow. I think we all can use that in today’s world.
Pricing:
- From 1,800 to 11,000 USD
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.katushastudio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heriswhatyoudidntknowyouneeded?igsh=MTAzbmI5YWxxaWVpMw==
