VICTORIA CHABAN

Victoria Chaban is a contemporary painter whose work investigates the expressive potential of movement, color, and pattern. From a deep fascination with avian life and its myriad forms, her work presents birds not as literal representations of nature but as symbolic embodiments of presence, resilience, and ecological resonance. The bold patterns and vivid colors that animate her compositions underscore a belief in art’s ability to speak through structure as much as subject. 

Chaban’s approach is both intuitive and deliberate: she harnesses the fluidity of gouache and ink to chart the dynamic interplay between figure and surface, creating works that are at once rhythmic and intentional. In doing so, birds become more than motifs. They emerge as sentinels within a shifting ecosystem, reflecting deeper questions of balance, transformation, and the interdependence of life.

Her art bridges aesthetic beauty with thoughtful inquiry, inviting the viewer to consider not only the visual language of pattern and motion but also the broader symbolic currents that shape our perceptions of nature and space. Chaban’s work appears in international private collections and continues to evolve as she expands her exploration of pattern, nature, and spatial narrative. 

BORN  San Francisco, lives and works in San Francisco and New York

EDUCATION

1987 B F A Painting and drawing  Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA

1987 glass blowing Pilchuck Glass School and worked with Dale Chihuly, Washington

1985 Art History University of London

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 Chroma Projects, Charlottesville, Va February 2024 Gatekeepers - our vital protectors

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 Wessling Contemporary, San Francisco CA, Mondo Fauna Group Invitational

2024 Zoe Street Gallery, Kunst & Klavier for World Central Kitchen

2024 WEAD-Women Eco Artists Dialog: Kinship with Birds in Flight and Plight

2022 Pen and Ink Brigade : Draw the Line, benefiting Emily’s List

2020 Pen and Ink Brigade : Georgia On My Mind, benefiting Stacy Abrahams,

2020 Pen and Ink Brigade : Stand Up, benefiting Emily’s List

2019Pen and Ink Brigade: Pink is Power, benefiting Emily’s List  Pink

2019 Modern Appealing Clothing, San Francisco, CA, Bird Monuments

2018 Satellite of Love Gallery, San Francisco, CA

PUBLICATIONS

2024 Albemarle Magazine February issue

2024 C’Ville Magazine https://c-ville.com/february-galleries-2/

2022 West Marin Review, volume 10, 2022 Grebe and Pink Throated Twinspot

2022 Book Jacket for Joan Baranow poetry, “Murmurations” 2022

2018 Kate Patterson, “Velvet Art Pillows”, birds painted on pillows ,SF Collections blog

2011 Leslie Mehren, The San Francisco Examiner

GRANTS & RESIDENCIES

Virginia Center for Creative Arts -Auvillar France Summer 2025

Virginia Center for Creative Arts - Amherst, VA Summer 2023

ASSOCIATIONS

WEAD

ART BRAND ALLIANCE

PEN AND INK BRIGADE

ARTWORK IN PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

San Francisco, London, New York, Virginia, Seattle, Sonoma, Sacramento