Meet Mari Victoria Fallat | Artist & Fashion designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mari Victoria Fallat and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mari Victoria, why did you pursue a creative career?
I never consciously decided to become an artist. Art has always been the language through which I understand the world and myself.

Throughout my life I worked in different creative fields, from fashion and beauty to design, but painting remained the place where I could ask the deepest questions about human nature.

My work explores love, desire, power, masks, roles, vulnerability, and the often hidden parts of ourselves. I am fascinated by the contrast between what people show to the world and what they truly feel inside.

Moving to Los Angeles was one of the biggest creative risks of my life. Starting over in a new country taught me resilience and gave me the courage to fully embrace my artistic path.

Today I am preparing my second solo exhibition, The Player, a body of work inspired by the games, masks, and roles we all perform in life. For me, art is not only about creating beautiful images. It is about revealing truths that are often difficult to express with words.

My version:
I never consciously decided to become an artist. Art has always been the language through which I understand the world and myself.
When my parents noticed how much I loved drawing, they enrolled me in art school when I was nine years old. That early support became the foundation of everything that followed.
As a child, I was fascinated by details. I could spend hours studying the smallest elements of a face, a gesture, a piece of fabric, or a fleeting emotion. I noticed details not only in what I saw, but also in what I heard, felt, and experienced. Even then, I was trying to understand people and the stories hidden beneath the surface.
I was especially drawn to drawing and graphic art. There was something deeply satisfying about transforming chaos into clarity, shadow into light, and countless individual strokes into a coherent image. For many years, I worked almost exclusively with graphite pencils. I loved the precision they offered, the ability to guide every line exactly where I wanted it to go. I was fascinated by the smallest details, details that are often difficult to achieve with paint alone.
Because my drawing was highly precise and technical, my parents hoped I would become an architect. I came very close to entering an architectural university. Later, I had the opportunity to study fashion design in Florence, Italy, a city that felt deeply connected to my spirit. Yet neither architecture nor fashion alone felt like the final destination.
The truth is that I was never interested in just one creative path. I was fascinated by architecture, fashion, design, theater, cinema, storytelling, and art. At different moments in my life, I dreamed of becoming a ballerina, actress, model, journalist, director, designer, architect, and artist. In different ways, I eventually experienced many of those roles, and they later became an important part of my artistic exploration of identity, performance, masks, and self-transformation.
Looking back, I realize I was never searching for a profession. I was searching for a way to create my own world.
Before fully returning to fine art, I spent many years working in the beauty and television industry and eventually became the chief makeup artist for a popular evening talk show. I worked with actors, musicians, public figures, and internationally recognized celebrities. More importantly, I learned to observe people.
I became fascinated by the relationship between identity and performance, between who we are and who we present to the world. I have always loved theater, and over time real life began to feel like a stage. People wear masks, play roles, hide vulnerabilities, and create stories about themselves. For years I was both a participant and an observer, watching others and watching myself.
At the height of my television career, I made one of the most important and uncertain decisions of my life: I left everything familiar behind and moved to the United States. Los Angeles became both my greatest teacher and my greatest challenge. Starting over in a new country forced me to reinvent myself, trust my instincts, and fully commit to my creative path. Looking back, it was one of the biggest artistic risks I have ever taken, and one of the most transformative.
For a long time, black was the dominant color in my artistic world. It reflected my fascination with contrast, mystery, shadow, and form. Yet after moving to Los Angeles and traveling a long road of personal and creative transformation, another color gradually entered my life: red.
Today, red runs like a thread through my work. It has become a symbol of passion, desire, love, courage, sensuality, transformation, and life itself. But red also represents tension. The delicate edge between attraction and danger, freedom and control, vulnerability and power. It is the fine line we constantly walk, often without realizing it, balancing between opposing forces within ourselves.
In many ways, my artistic journey can be traced through this transition: from black to red, from observation to expression, from analysis to emotion.
This transformation inspired my first fashion collection, Shades of Red. Years later, Los Angeles became the birthplace of another chapter in my creative journey. My first solo exhibition in the city, Shades of Love, marked what felt like a second rebirth as an artist and creator.
The exhibition explored the many shades of love and the wide spectrum of emotions that surround it. Because nothing in life is ever entirely black or white. Every feeling, every relationship, every choice contains nuances, contradictions, and layers of meaning.
As part of the exhibition, I also introduced an experimental fragrance collection called Nuances d’LAmour, French for “Shades of Love,” born in Los Angeles as an extension of the world I create through art.
I have always been interested in creating experiences that engage more than sight alone. Through painting, fashion, fragrance, storytelling, and mixed media, I invite viewers not only to see my world, but to feel it, breathe it in, hear it, and perhaps discover within it the freedom to create a world of their own, with their own rules, meanings, and possibilities.
Today I am preparing my second solo exhibition, The Player, a body of work inspired by the games, masks, and roles we all perform throughout life.
For me, art is not simply about creating beautiful images. It is about revealing truths that are often difficult to express with words. I have never been interested in creating images alone. I want to create a world. And if someone, even for a moment, steps into that world and discovers a new possibility within themselves, then I feel I have fulfilled my purpose as an artist.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When my parents noticed how much I loved drawing, they enrolled me in art school when I was nine years old. That early support became the foundation of everything that followed.

As a child, I was fascinated by details. I could spend hours studying the smallest elements of a face, a gesture, a fabric, or a fleeting emotion. I noticed details not only in what I saw, but also in what I heard, felt, and experienced. Even then, I was trying to understand people and the stories hidden beneath the surface.

Because my drawing was highly precise and technical, my parents hoped I would become an architect. I was very close to entering an architectural university. Later, I had an opportunity to study fashion design in Florence, Italy, a city that felt deeply connected to my spirit. Yet neither architecture nor fashion alone felt like the final destination.

The truth is that I was never interested in just one creative path. I was fascinated by architecture, fashion, design, theater, cinema, storytelling, and art. At different moments in my life, I dreamed of becoming a ballerina, an actress, a journalist, a director, a designer, an architect, and an artist. I was even accepted into a directing program led by one of Russia’s most celebrated film directors.

Looking back, I realize I was not searching for a profession. I was searching for a way to create worlds.

Before fully returning to fine art, I spent many years working in the beauty and television industry and eventually became the chief makeup artist for a popular evening talk show. I worked with actors, musicians, public figures, and internationally recognized celebrities. More importantly, I learned to observe people.

I became fascinated by the relationship between identity and performance, between who we are and who we present to the world. I have always loved theater, and over time real life began to feel like a stage. People wear masks, play roles, hide vulnerabilities, and create stories about themselves. For years I was both a participant and an observer, watching others and watching myself.

At the height of my television career, I made the life-changing decision to move to the United States. Los Angeles became both my greatest teacher and my greatest challenge. It pushed me beyond my comfort zone, forced me to reinvent myself, and transformed not only my life but also my artistic voice.

Today, my work explores love, desire, identity, masks, roles, power, vulnerability, and the hidden aspects of human nature. Through painting and mixed media, I create visual stories that invite viewers to look beneath the surface.

My upcoming solo exhibition, The Player, reflects these ideas. It explores life as a game of choices, masks, illusion, seduction, strategy, and self-discovery.

What fascinates me most is that, in many ways, we are all players. As children, we instinctively understand this. We become explorers, queens, pirates, dancers, dreamers, and heroes without questioning whether we are allowed to be. Somewhere along the way, many people forget that freedom.

For me, art is a reminder that we can continue to explore, reinvent ourselves, and step into new possibilities throughout our lives. Perhaps true freedom lies in recognizing that we are not limited to a single role. We are free to create ourselves again and again.

If someone stands in front of one of my paintings and recognizes a hidden part of themselves, then I feel I have succeeded as an artist.

My version:
What sets my work apart is that I have never been interested in creating paintings alone. I have always been interested in creating a world.

My work explores love, desire, masks, roles, power, vulnerability, illusion, and the hidden aspects of human nature. I am fascinated by the space between who we truly are and who we choose to present to the world.

Many of my works feature women, but I am rarely interested in portraiture alone. I am interested in symbols, archetypes, emotional landscapes, and the stories that exist beneath the surface. The female figure often becomes a mirror through which larger questions are explored: identity, freedom, seduction, transformation, and self-discovery.

One of the defining elements of my work is color. For many years, black dominated my artistic world. It reflected my fascination with mystery, shadow, contrast, and form. After moving to Los Angeles and experiencing a profound personal and creative transformation, another color gradually entered my life: red.

Today, red runs through my work like a thread. It symbolizes passion, desire, courage, sensuality, transformation, and life itself. But red also represents tension, the delicate edge between attraction and danger, vulnerability and power, freedom and control. It is the fine line we all walk at different moments in our lives.

That evolution inspired my first fashion collection, Shades of Red. Later, my first Los Angeles solo exhibition, Shades of Love, explored the many nuances of human emotions and relationships. As an extension of that idea, I also introduced an experimental fragrance collection called Nuances d’ALmour. Together, these projects became different expressions of the same creative universe.

I have always been interested in creating experiences that engage more than sight alone. Through painting, mixed media, fashion, fragrance, and storytelling, I invite viewers not only to see my world, but to feel it, breathe it in, hear it, and perhaps discover within it the freedom to create a world of their own.

Today I am preparing my second solo exhibition, The Player. The exhibition explores masks, choices, illusion, seduction, strategy, and self-discovery. In many ways, it asks a question that has fascinated me throughout my life: Who are we beneath the roles we play?

I have always been fascinated by great players, not only in art, but in life.

Salvador Dalí and Gala are a fascinating example. Their relationship was unconventional, complex, and often controversial, yet together they created something far greater than either could have achieved alone. In many ways, they understood that talent itself is not enough. Vision is not enough. Even passion is not enough.

Art, like life, requires intuition, courage, timing, strategy, and the ability to navigate an ever-changing landscape.

What I admire most is not simply Dalí’s genius, but the way they understood the game they were playing and found a way to remain true to themselves while moving through it.

Perhaps that is one of the ideas at the heart of The Player. We are all participants in a game we did not create. Yet we still have the freedom to decide how we move, what we value, what risks we take, and who we become.

The challenge is not to avoid the game.

The challenge is to learn how to dance with it without losing yourself.

What excites me most is that The Player is not only about the figures within the paintings or drawings. It is also deeply personal. Like everyone else, I have experienced moments of uncertainty, risk, reinvention, and transformation. The game I explore in my work is not only happening on the canvas. It is happening in life.

The greatest lesson I have learned is that growth begins where certainty ends. Reinvention is not a betrayal of who we are. Sometimes it is the most honest expression of who we have always been.

If there is one thing I would like people to know about my work and my story, it is that I am not interested in offering answers. I am interested in creating space for questions.

I want viewers to look beyond the surface, recognize something of themselves, and perhaps leave with a new perspective on their own story.

If that happens, even for a moment, then the work has done its job.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend were visiting Los Angeles, I would not try to show them the city in a week. I would try to show them its soul.

We would begin in Miracle Mile, one of my favorite neighborhoods and the place I proudly call home for my art studio. It is where I create my work, prepare exhibitions, and spend countless hours bringing ideas to life. From there, we would visit museums and galleries, explore the architecture of Beverly Hills and Bel Air, spend an afternoon at the Getty Center, and watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. I would also take them to one of Los Angeles’ Japanese gardens, places that have deeply inspired my work.

One evening, we would drive into the Hollywood Hills and watch the city stretch endlessly below us, disappearing into the blue haze of the horizon. Los Angeles has some of the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises I have ever seen. From above, the city feels both vast and intimate, like a dream unfolding beneath your feet.

What fascinates me most about Los Angeles is its contradictions. Ocean and mountains. Luxury and struggle. Glamour and raw reality. Historic neighborhoods, Downtown, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills can feel like completely different worlds existing within the same city.

Over the years, I have experienced every possible emotion here. There were moments when I was inspired by Los Angeles, moments when I loved it passionately, moments when I felt frustrated by it, and then found myself falling in love with it all over again.

Perhaps that is why this city became such an important part of my artistic journey. Los Angeles taught me that life is rarely black and white. It exists in the space between love and hate, illusion and truth, dreams and reality.

Sometimes it seems to me that Los Angeles itself wears countless masks, shifting from one role to another like a character in one of my paintings.

As an artist, that is where I find my inspiration.

My upcoming solo exhibition, The Player, explores the roles we perform, the masks we wear, and the freedom we have to reinvent ourselves. In many ways, Los Angeles embodies that same idea. It is a city that constantly reminds us that we are all players in this world, free to create, transform, and become something new.

My version:
If my best friend were visiting Los Angeles, I would not try to show them the city. I would try to show them its soul.

I have traveled extensively throughout my life and have encountered an extraordinary range of people, cultures, and realities. I have seen places defined by refinement, beauty, culture, and tradition. I have also experienced environments where survival, power, and self-interest often overshadow everything else. Those extremes usually exist in different countries, different worlds, and different circumstances.

What fascinates me about Los Angeles is that somehow all of those contrasts exist here, side by side.

I have never seen another place where so many opposites coexist so vividly within such a small corner of the world. Here you can find mountains, desert, ocean, forests, luxury, struggle, ambition, heartbreak, beauty, tragedy, reinvention, and hope. Most importantly, Los Angeles is a meeting point for countless cultures, nationalities, dreams, and stories.

If my friends trusted me enough, I would ask them to do something unusual. I would ask them to close their eyes and simply follow me.

I imagine driving them across the city wearing blindfolds, not knowing where we are going next. Then, at each destination, I would remove the blindfold and invite them to observe without judgment. Just look. Just feel. Just pay attention.

One moment we might be standing above the city in the Hollywood Hills, watching the endless lights disappear into the horizon. The next, we could be walking through a quiet Japanese garden, surrounded by stillness and reflection. Then perhaps we would find ourselves in the heart of Downtown, surrounded by energy, ambition, contradictions, and movement.

I would take them to museums and galleries, to Miracle Mile where my studio is located, to the Getty Center, to hidden corners of the city, and to places most tourists never see. But the goal would not be sightseeing.

The goal would be experiencing contrast.

Because Los Angeles, to me, is not a city. It is a living lesson in duality. Light and shadow. Success and failure. Love and loss. Beauty and imperfection. Illusion and truth.

Perhaps that is why this city became such an important part of my artistic journey. It constantly reminds me that nothing is ever entirely one thing or another. Everything contains layers, contradictions, and nuances.

In many ways, Los Angeles resembles the themes I explore in my work. It wears countless masks. It changes roles constantly. It reinvents itself every day.

And maybe that is why I love it.

By the end of the week, I would not want my friends to remember specific restaurants or landmarks. I would want them to remember how the city made them feel.

Because the most interesting thing about Los Angeles is not what you see.

It is what you discover while looking.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate this shoutout to my parents.

They were the first people who recognized and encouraged my artistic talent. When they noticed how much I loved drawing, they enrolled me in art school when I was nine years old.

What they probably didn’t realize at the time was that drawing was never just drawing for me. It was a game. A way of exploring the world.

As a child, a blank sheet of paper felt like complete freedom. Through art, I could create characters, invent stories, step into different realities, and ask questions that had no simple answers. Art became my playground, my laboratory, and eventually my profession. Art remains my way of exploring life through play, curiosity, and imagination.

Looking back, I think that sense of play has remained at the center of everything I create. Many of my works explore masks, roles, relationships, desire, power, illusion, and the different characters we become throughout our lives. In a way, we are all players moving across a complicated board, trying to understand ourselves and one another.

My upcoming solo exhibition, The Player, is deeply connected to this idea.

I am grateful to my parents for giving me the opportunity to begin this journey so early. Their support gave me not only an artistic education, but also the freedom to imagine, explore, and trust my own voice.

I would also like to thank the collectors, friends, mentors, and supporters who have accompanied me along the way. Art may begin in solitude, but every creative journey is shaped by the people who believe in it.

My version:

I would like to dedicate this shoutout first and foremost to my parents.

They were the first people who recognized and encouraged my artistic talent. When they noticed how much I loved drawing, they enrolled me in art school when I was nine years old.

What they probably did not realize at the time was that drawing was never just drawing for me. It was freedom. It was exploration. It was a way of creating a world of my own.

As a child, a blank sheet of paper felt like endless possibility. Through art, I could invent characters, create stories, step into different realities, and ask questions that had no simple answers. Looking back, I realize that this sense of curiosity and play has never left me. It remains at the heart of everything I create today.

I would also like to acknowledge one artist I met later in life.

I met him at a time when I was close to giving up on my own creative path. He had endured many of the same struggles, uncertainties, and obstacles that I was facing, yet he never betrayed himself or abandoned his artistic vision. Despite the difficulties, he found the strength to continue and ultimately built the life and career he believed in.

What moved me most was not his success itself, but his unwavering commitment to his own path.

In many ways, he stood on the same red line that appears throughout my work, that delicate edge between fear and courage, doubt and faith, surrender and persistence. Meeting him felt like encountering a mirror. Two different worlds, two different journeys, yet somehow reflecting similar questions and challenges.

For a long time, I admired his talent, resilience, and dedication. Eventually, however, I realized that the most important lesson was not about him at all.

The lesson was that all the admiration, encouragement, belief, and energy I was directing outward needed to be directed inward as well. I needed to offer myself the same support, trust, patience, and respect that I so easily offered to others.

In an unexpected way, that encounter helped me return to myself. It reminded me that the path forward was not through comparison, but through commitment to my own work, my own voice, and my own creative journey.

I would also like to thank the collectors, friends, mentors, supporters, and everyone who believed in my work long before there was any certainty about where this path would lead. Art may begin in solitude, but no creative journey is built alone.

Every exhibition, every painting, every new idea carries a small piece of all those people who offered encouragement, guidance, trust, or simply appeared at exactly the right moment.

For that, I am deeply grateful.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redfoxchillipepper

Other: Artist: Mari V. Fallat

Upcoming Solo Exhibition:

The Player

Los Angeles, California

June 27, 2026

For inquiries regarding artwork, exhibitions, collaborations, and commissions:

Instagram: @redfoxchillipepper @mari_v_fallat

Image Credits
Nadya Balitskaya