Exclusive Interview With Valeria Andreis, Winner of the Catherine K. Gyllerstrom People’s Choice Award, 2024 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize by Danai Molocha
A figurative artist yearning for human connection through expressive, meditative brushstrokes, Valeria Andreis didn’t find her time studying at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts smooth sailing. To her, art and contemporary painting weren’t about networking with curators and gallerists or fitting into the art scene as short-sightedly instructed. Taking a break from the canvas for two years, it took time, courage and plenty of self-searching for her to reconnect with her artistic voice. But the results speak for themselves.
Her Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize winner 2024, L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres draws on the priceless insights of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, melded with the iconography of Saint Sebastian, contemporary self-portraiture and the kind of inquisitiveness and self-exploration that took Valeria years to sink her teeth and brush into.
I talked to Valeria about combining her deep respect for Italian artistic heritage with painting outside the fine arts box and the long journey to refining the rich nuances of her true creative self in an exclusive interview.
Interview with Valeria Andreis
You’ve mentioned that your studies at the Academy of Fine Arts brought on a creative block. How was that period personally for you and how did you overcome these challenges?
Art schools are often described as spaces for independent thought, yet my experience at the art academy felt more like being inside a bubble. Most people I met there shared the same mindset, adhering to a narrow idea of what constituted “art.” In Italy, public art academies tend to focus heavily on conceptual art and installation—genres that were at their peak when many of the teachers were emerging artists in their twenties. Painting, especially figurative painting like mine, was often dismissed as a lesser form of art.
I still remember being asked during an exam, “Do you think it still makes sense to paint nowadays?”
The pathway to becoming an artist was framed around networking rather than developing tangible skills like building a portfolio, studying the art world, or learning how to approach galleries. Success, we were told, depended on our ability to network: to attend openings, linger afterward, and engage with artists, curators, and gallerists. As an artist who paints to express her inner world—and someone who dislikes PR and competitive environments—you can imagine how alienating this was for me.
I tried to adapt, creating work that I thought would fit into the “art scene” they described. But in doing so, I lost touch with myself. My paintings and projects no longer reflected who I was because they were designed to meet external expectations. Unsurprisingly, this approach didn’t work—for me or for the “art scene.” That’s the risk of not staying true to yourself.
It took me two years of not painting to dismantle those preconceptions and reconnect with my artistic voice. In 2023, I started painting for myself again, and it was a transformative experience. Although I struggled with perfectionism and mood swings in my art practice, I managed to outline ideas for over 15 paintings, start 6–7 of them, and complete one. That painting, Playing with Fire, was exhibited in a collective show at SAC in Robecchetto con Induno, Italy, in 2024.
Another pivotal moment in 2023 was attending an art quarantine—a week-long retreat on an island with 100 artists from around the world, including some of my favorites like Vincent Desiderio, Miles Johnston, and Guillermo Lorca. Meeting like-minded artists made me feel less alone and helped me overcome lingering blocks from my art school years.
Your path is yours alone. Following someone else’s exact steps won’t lead you to the same destination.
Valeria Andreis
This set the stage for 2024, which became my most productive year yet. I created numerous new paintings, learning and growing with each one. Revisiting and correcting older works taught me invaluable lessons. I also took online courses from artists I admire, such as Will St. John and Colleen Barry, and immersed myself in artist podcasts that fostered a positive mindset.
I still have a lot to work on and can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store.
One of the highlights of 2024 was submitting my work to the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize. I was selected as a finalist and won the People’s Choice Award! It was one of those moments when everything clicks, and the hard work pays off.
Could you share with us some of the most important lessons you’ve learned in your art journey so far?
I actually wrote these down recently, so they’re fresh in my mind:
- Authenticity is key. Your background doesn’t matter as much as your dedication to technical quality, developing a strong sensitivity, and staying true to yourself. When your art reflects your true self and conveys that honestly, it resonates with others. That’s when people can’t stop looking at your work, and someone will notice. But you can’t reverse-engineer this process—paint for yourself, dance like no one’s watching, and be unapologetically you.
- Your path is yours alone. Following someone else’s exact steps won’t lead you to the same destination. Instead, focus on your potential, follow what truly calls you, and embrace the unexpected opportunities life throws your way. Often, things that don’t seem to make sense at first will eventually connect and form your unique path.
- Balance is everything. A good art practice thrives on balance—between comfort zones and experimentation, practice and study, quick and slow work, and impulsive and deliberate ideas.
- Keep an inspiration journal. Write down what inspires you—quotes from books, movies, or poems—and sketch anything that catches your eye, like a shadow, a sunset, a smile, or a detail in another artist’s work. Over time, this becomes a personal wellspring of ideas and inspiration.
- Find the right environment. Surround yourself with people and places that reflect your values and elevate you. This doesn’t mean seeking only supportive spaces that shield you from growth but finding those that challenge and inspire you in alignment with your beliefs.
It’s my impression that you’ve embraced self-portraiture more in recent years –or at least your artworks look a lot like you. Does that have to do with a wider tendency towards self-searching and self-discovery?
I get this question a lot, and honestly the answer starts with something very practical: I’m the cheapest and most available model around!
Posing for references is a big part of my process—it helps me visualize gestures and explore ideas through body language. For me, it feels a lot like acting. I’m not sure I could feel the same level of connection or sync with another model.
That said, I also believe that no matter who or what you paint, you’re always painting yourself in some way. Even when I paint a model with completely different features, people still ask if it’s a self-portrait.
So, yes, being the “main actress” in the scenes I create is deeply tied to the self-exploration aspect of my work. But there are also practical benefits to painting the same face repeatedly. Over time, I’ve become so familiar with my own features that I can reconstruct them from memory, which makes the process more efficient. This repetition also gives my work a sense of cohesion, much like in classical or Renaissance art—think of Perugino, Botticelli, or Parmigianino, where the faces often bear a striking resemblance to one another.
Of course, this approach has its downsides. Many famous artists had a favorite model, and audiences seem fine with that. But when the model and the artist are the same person, people tend to conflate the two. While it is my face, the painting itself is a separate entity, it’s not a mirror.
I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about this. When people recognize me in my work, it can create a barrier that prevents them—especially those who know me personally—from fully connecting with the piece. It feels like a wall I want to break down.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with subtly altering my features in some pieces—so it’s still “me,” but it doesn’t look like a self-portrait. That’s something I’m planning to explore more this year.
The painting that won the BB Art Prize, L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres. The title is inspired by Sartre’s famous line. What does it mean to you personally and how did it inspire this painting?
That painting has a long and intricate journey, which I’ve detailed in my YouTube video on Vale su Tela: “5 Things I’ve Learned in 9 Months of Making This Painting.” The concept originated from a sketch I drew in 2017, inspired by the iconography of Saint Sebastian—a recurring theme in Italian art from the 14th to 17th century. Saint Sebastian is traditionally depicted tied to a column, with dozens of arrows piercing his body.
References to art history are a constant in my work; they allow me to honor my culture and Italian artistic heritage. This concept evolved over the years but remained unrealized for a long time, as it was ambitious, and my skills didn’t align with my vision. Then, in 2023, the year of my artistic rebirth, I decided to finally take it on—without a concrete sketch or rigid plan.
The painting reflects my thoughts on relationships with others, particularly the tension between allowing others to deeply affect us and maintaining a protective surface. This work is deeply personal and holds a special place in my heart because I grew alongside it. It taught me so much about persistence, playfulness, and refining my creative process.
You’ve said that this painting was altered several times before its final stage. You talked about not settling for the initial results and how aiming higher than what we think we are capable of –accepting mistakes and changing course again and again– helps us grow. Would you like to elaborate a bit on that?
This painting took over six years to conceptualize and nearly nine months to complete. At one point, I realized that if I kept waiting until I felt “ready,” the concept would continue to evolve, becoming even more complex as my skills improved. So, I finally decided to dive in.
I painted and repainted almost every element, fixing and changing parts until they aligned with my vision. I replaced all my reference photos and tried multiple digital sketches, which didn’t help as much as I hoped. When I started, I didn’t have the technical abilities needed to achieve the result you see today. Those skills developed through correcting my mistakes.
I see mistakes as compasses—they guide you toward what needs change, even if the solution isn’t immediately clear.
Valeria Andreis
I see mistakes as compasses—they guide you toward what needs change, even if the solution isn’t immediately clear. By observing, asking the right questions, and studying how other artists solve similar challenges, you can navigate through the process. It’s about trial and error: keeping what works and discarding what doesn’t.
That said, it’s also important to recognize when to let go and when to push through. I’ve abandoned some paintings that felt irredeemable, and that’s okay too. This experience taught me to trust the process, embrace imperfection, and aim for growth rather than immediate perfection.
Why is it so important to place the human figure at the centre of your art? You also seem to be inspired by travelling, but you haven’t really turned towards landscape painting.
This is such an insightful question, as it’s true—I love traveling, and landscapes move me profoundly. However, I don’t feel driven to paint them, at least not for now. I love observing landscapes and getting lost in what I see. For instance, when I visited the Grand Canyon last year, I was so overwhelmed by its beauty that I wanted to cry.
I deeply admire landscape painters like Segantini, Turner, or Friedrich, who could convey the sublime and awe-inspiring greatness of what they saw. But when I stand in front of such vast beauty, I feel like I disappear in it—so overwhelmed that I can’t imagine doing justice to that experience through my own art.
When I look at or paint a figure, I feel like I’m connecting to the world through a human perspective. It’s a way to make sense of my surroundings and emotions.
Valeria Andreis
The human figure, on the other hand, feels much more relatable and measurable. When I look at or paint a figure, I feel like I’m connecting to the world through a human perspective. It’s a way to make sense of my surroundings and emotions. The figure gives me a sense of control, a way to explore and express ideas that feel more personal and tangible. Landscapes inspire me deeply, but they remain external—something I admire rather than something I feel compelled to create. For now, the human figure remains at the core of my artistic exploration.
Can you name some of the artists you look up to the most –in terms of aesthetics, but also things like their stance or success in the art world, their art journey more broadly?
Absolutely! Over the past year, I’ve been captivated by Colleen Barry’s work. She’s a NYC-based artist who’s managed to bridge her classical art education with a modern aesthetic, creating paintings that feel like a dialogue between ancient Roman art and today’s sensibilities. I also admire her ability to balance her career and personal life as a mother and artist—something I find incredibly inspiring.
For similar reasons, I look up to artists like Daniela Astone and Miriam Hoffman. I also deeply respect artists who have been bold enough to evolve their style unapologetically to stay true to themselves. Aleah Chapin and Cesar Santos come to mind as excellent examples of this courage.
Among contemporary artists, I find endless inspiration in the works of James Jean, Naudline Pierre, Miles Johnston, Edward Povey, and Jenny Morgan. They all have such unique voices and inspire me in very different ways. And of course, there are the masters from the past, who continue to be a cornerstone of my artistic foundation.
Italy comes with a great artistic heritage. What is your view of the new generation of Italian artists, and what would you like to contribute to that?
In Italy, there are over a hundred thousand churches, most of which are painted inside. Growing up surrounded by all these figures creates a visual imprint that’s impossible to shake off.
While my knowledge of the young Italian art scene is limited to the artists whose work resonates with me, I do believe that Italian artists who embrace and evolve from this heritage are in a particularly strong position. They have access to a unique visual language, one rooted in centuries of tradition, and when they manage to merge this with contemporary expression, their work becomes deeply powerful.
Personally, I want to be part of that generation of artists who can take our cultural heritage and adapt it into something that speaks not just to Italians, but to people from all times and places. I want to create work that resonates with emotions and states of mind that transcend periods and relate to human experience across history.
Why did you enter the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize?
I’ve been following the Beautiful Bizarre magazine and the prize for years. Many of the artists I admire have been featured in the magazine or its newsletter, and it’s always been a huge inspiration, especially during my art school days when conceptual art was so prominent.
In 2024, after submitting to several galleries and being turned down, I felt like I needed a sign from the universe—a confirmation that I was heading in the right direction. I felt proud of my work, and for the first time in my career, I had a piece I truly believed was worthy of submission. So, I went for it. It became the sign I needed, a dream come true. I’m deeply grateful to the jury, the people who voted me and to my past self for believing in my work.
What do you feel you have gained from this experience?
The most important thing I gained from winning the People’s Choice Award is the confidence that my work can resonate with others. It touches people in different ways, and the diversity of interpretations I received from my followers was overwhelming—each response was unique and powerful in its own way. That boost in confidence has inspired me to dedicate even more time to my personal research, refine my artistic process, and develop a new series for 2025.
That confidence results in a goal for this year of dedicating more and more time to my personal research, refining my art process, studying more, and all of that coming together in a new series of paintings.
Would you recommend it and encourage others to enter? If so, why?
Yes! It’s a powerful challenge that can help any artist understand where they are in their career, whether they fit in a certain art environment, and to confront constructively with artists from all over the world.