Il credo, nelle visioni di Unità (2024) Painting by Stefania Russo (Illusorya)

Stefania Russo, aka Illusorya (previously under the nickname LadyFanhir) is a self-taught and independent artist. Born in 1984, she's living in the North-West Italy.
Graduated at the Fashion School and subsequentely the experience as a restorer of antique furniture she slowly abandon them and focus on Art world, as self-defensing from the first obfuscations of a strong breackdown due to the mental and physical instability in her persona. If initially art was used as a therapy escape from reality, over time, it becomes a source of inspiration to the path she had been looking for: through the most elegant and dreamlike form of Dark Grotesque she transposes fragments of human life, fragility and resilience inspired by the listening of personal and other's experiences.

Stefania is a Traditional artist favoring watercolours, tools with anarchic mood like the feelings themselves. The peculiarity of her paintings is that they're done in "Alla Prima" technique -first attempt- and on smaller sizes, that never exceed 30x40cm/12x16in, in order to maintain the best emotional impact, which would be lost after several attempts in the aesthetic search for perfection.
Being self-taught, indeed, teach to Stefania the importance of representing perfection in own imperfection albeit with the refined search for details and synergies between lines and colors and, most important, portraying against the canonical “beautiful” aesthetic rule encouraging to welcome the humanity face; she focuses predominantly on females and also enjoys depicting queer and androgynous people.
The perspectives elegantly adapt to the emotional vision of inspiration, giving space to a deceptive view as such is the human mind and its masks. The name Illusorya, indeed, came from the idea to creates seductive works seemingly simple at first glance, to the point of striking in the heart of those who valiantly delve into the hiding symbolic details.

In 2016 she founded, together with the Swedish artist Sandra Hultsved, the online gallery "Memento Tea Gallery" dedicated to the Dark & Grotesque genre, where national and international painters and sculptors participated in the project. Memento Tea Gallery is currently on hiatus for logistical reasons.

Stefania currently work as indie artist, open to private/commercial commissions and being part of global art projects.
Some of her works has been exhibits at international galleries and published in several international publications
More than this, Stefania has recently opens her own atelier to the public, giving the chance to visit and purchase in person her artworks and more unpublished handmade creations.

• Nationality: ITALY
• Date of birth : 1984
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary Italian Artists