Irina Starzhenetskaya turns to two traditions: on the one hand, these are bold experiments with palette and form, typical for the avant-garde, on the other hand, the symbolism of ancient Russian painting. As a theater artist, Irina Starzhenetskaya could not help but use the dramatic expressiveness of color that Kandinsky was passionate about at the time, linking color and emotion. As a person of church culture, she could not help but understand the symbolism of purple and blue: in the late 1980s, Irina Starzhenetskaya was among the first of her generation who turned to spiritual history.

She graduated from the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov in 1968. In 1969 she joined the Artists’ Union of the USSR. Between 1965 and 1985, she worked extensively as a theater artist in musical theaters; in 1989 she turned to church art. She became a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts in 2001; she was laureate of the St. Sergius of Radonezh’s Prize in 2003; she was awarded the gold medal of the Russian Academy of Arts in 2004. Her artworks can be found in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and in many other museums in Russia, the USA, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Austria, and Germany.

Featured exhibitions:

1982 - “Aspect of Contemporary Soviet Art”, P. Ludwig’s Gallery in Cologne and P. Ludwig’s New Gallery in Aachen
1986 - Exhibition “Dmitry Shostakovich and his time”, Duisburg
1991 - International auction in favor of victims of Chernobyl (under the UNESCO program), France, Italy;
1990 - 1991 - Art exhibitions “Washington - Moscow”, Moscow - State Tretyakov Gallery, Washington - Carnegie Library
1992 - Joint exhibition with A. Komelin at the West-Art Gallery, Oslo, Norway
1993 - West-Art Gallery, Oslo, Norway;
1993 - State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow;
1996 - Manege Gallery, Moscow;
1998 - Russian Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia;
2002 - “L. Zakirova’s Gallery”, the Netherlands
2004 - State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow;
2004 - Theater “School of Dramatic Art”, Moscow;
2007 - Vincent Gallery, Moscow;
2017 - Solo exhibition in the A. Fomenko’s Theater
2019 - In the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow;
2019 - Solo exhibition in the Bakhrushin Museum, Moscow;
2019 - Participant of the Biennale in Budapest.