Justell Vonk is the artistic name of Aliona Leonova-Vendrovskaya, a Ukrainian artist based in Germany, working professionally since 2015. Her path has led her through Makiivka, Moscow, Seattle, Kyiv, Lviv and Hamburg, some of them home for years, others for barely a couple of months, before bringing her to Lüneburg, where she lives and works today. Every move has left its mark on her art.
Earlier in her career, her work was primarily illustrative and often inspired by the darker side of Slavic and Scandinavian folklore. Today her attention has turned inward, exploring the uncertainty, curiosity and resilience that come with migration and the experience of having to reinvent oneself again and again.
This search gradually found its way into a personal symbolic world inhabited by sentient trees, animals, hybrid beings and dreamlike landscapes. Rather than illustrating specific stories, these recurring forms become metaphors for transformation, belonging, adaptation and coexistence. Each work presents a fragment of a larger imagined ecosystem, where identities remain fluid and unexpected relationships emerge between living things.
The shift from folk-horror illustration to surreal drawing also brought a change in medium: from black ink to graphite and coloured pencils, which allow her to achieve subtle gradations of tone and mood. Her current focus is on dense textures and luminous surfaces, built up slowly through many translucent layers. It is a deliberately slow process. A single drawing can take weeks or months to complete, and that patient rhythm has become part of the work itself, echoing the quiet worlds it seeks to create.
Although the themes have evolved, curiosity, humour and a sense of wonder remain essential parts of her artistic language. Drawing has always been a way of travelling beyond immediate reality, and she hopes her work offers viewers the same invitation: to enter places that feel both unfamiliar and strangely remembered, like fragments of a half-forgotten dream.
Justell Vonk's formal education includes studies at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle and the Surikov Art Academy in Moscow.
Publications:
Arcane Art Magazine (Issue #2).
Brut Magazine (Issue #5).
Black And White Art Book (Vol. 3).
Story book Discordance; A Soliloquy In Insomnia (Vol.1).
Comic book Insane Tales From The Dead (Issue #3).
MAD Art Magazine (Issue#1).
Lovecraftiana (Vol 1, Issue #4), 2017.
Monsters Holding Bitches (Issue #6), 2017.
Cover work for Poetry Book by Iran Infante - Tryptich of Madness, 2018.
Dirty Cult Anthology, 2018.
Comic Book Insane Tales From The Dead (Issue #4), 2019.
Oval Window by Josef Desade, 2019.
Strange Folklore By Justell Vonk, 2023.
The Ninth BHF Book of Horror Stories, Atlas Of Abominations, 2023.
Group Shows:
Horror Business, September-October 2017, Left hand Black Tattoo Studio And Gallery, San Diego, California, USA
Darkerkant, 13-14 October 2017, Cap San Diego, Hamburg, Germany
Something Witchy, October 2017, The Hive Gallery and Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA
Tarot Card Group Show, October 2017, Ghost Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA
11th Annual Holiday Mini Art Exhibit, November 2017, Ghost Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA
Monkey Tree Show, April 7th - May 26th 2018, Aeon Gallery, Richmond, Illinois
Darkerkant, 11-12 October 2018, Cap San Diego, Hamburg, Germany
2 Year Anniversary Show, 2018, The Dark Art Emporium, Long Beach, California
Darkerkant, 11-12 October 2019, Cap San Diego, Hamburg, Germany
Rapture Show- Muse, October 26th 2019 - 11th January 2020, Aeon Gallery, Richmond, Illinois
Don't Wake Daddy XIV, November 30th - December 21th, 2019, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany
SQUARED, June 2020 Online Show, Penumbra Gallery
DOLCH Release Show, October 17th 2020, Felsenkeller, Leipzig, Germany
Darkerkant, 14-15 October 2022, Cap San Diego, Hamburg, Germany
Ancient Echoes, 7-8 June 2023, Leipzig, Germany
Earlier in her career, her work was primarily illustrative and often inspired by the darker side of Slavic and Scandinavian folklore. Today her attention has turned inward, exploring the uncertainty, curiosity and resilience that come with migration and the experience of having to reinvent oneself again and again.
This search gradually found its way into a personal symbolic world inhabited by sentient trees, animals, hybrid beings and dreamlike landscapes. Rather than illustrating specific stories, these recurring forms become metaphors for transformation, belonging, adaptation and coexistence. Each work presents a fragment of a larger imagined ecosystem, where identities remain fluid and unexpected relationships emerge between living things.
The shift from folk-horror illustration to surreal drawing also brought a change in medium: from black ink to graphite and coloured pencils, which allow her to achieve subtle gradations of tone and mood. Her current focus is on dense textures and luminous surfaces, built up slowly through many translucent layers. It is a deliberately slow process. A single drawing can take weeks or months to complete, and that patient rhythm has become part of the work itself, echoing the quiet worlds it seeks to create.
Although the themes have evolved, curiosity, humour and a sense of wonder remain essential parts of her artistic language. Drawing has always been a way of travelling beyond immediate reality, and she hopes her work offers viewers the same invitation: to enter places that feel both unfamiliar and strangely remembered, like fragments of a half-forgotten dream.
Justell Vonk's formal education includes studies at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle and the Surikov Art Academy in Moscow.
Publications:
Arcane Art Magazine (Issue #2).
Brut Magazine (Issue #5).
Black And White Art Book (Vol. 3).
Story book Discordance; A Soliloquy In Insomnia (Vol.1).
Comic book Insane Tales From The Dead (Issue #3).
MAD Art Magazine (Issue#1).
Lovecraftiana (Vol 1, Issue #4), 2017.
Monsters Holding Bitches (Issue #6), 2017.
Cover work for Poetry Book by Iran Infante - Tryptich of Madness, 2018.
Dirty Cult Anthology, 2018.
Comic Book Insane Tales From The Dead (Issue #4), 2019.
Oval Window by Josef Desade, 2019.
Strange Folklore By Justell Vonk, 2023.
The Ninth BHF Book of Horror Stories, Atlas Of Abominations, 2023.
Group Shows:
Horror Business, September-October 2017, Left hand Black Tattoo Studio And Gallery, San Diego, California, USA
Darkerkant, 13-14 October 2017, Cap San Diego, Hamburg, Germany
Something Witchy, October 2017, The Hive Gallery and Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA
Tarot Card Group Show, October 2017, Ghost Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA
11th Annual Holiday Mini Art Exhibit, November 2017, Ghost Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA
Monkey Tree Show, April 7th - May 26th 2018, Aeon Gallery, Richmond, Illinois
Darkerkant, 11-12 October 2018, Cap San Diego, Hamburg, Germany
2 Year Anniversary Show, 2018, The Dark Art Emporium, Long Beach, California
Darkerkant, 11-12 October 2019, Cap San Diego, Hamburg, Germany
Rapture Show- Muse, October 26th 2019 - 11th January 2020, Aeon Gallery, Richmond, Illinois
Don't Wake Daddy XIV, November 30th - December 21th, 2019, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany
SQUARED, June 2020 Online Show, Penumbra Gallery
DOLCH Release Show, October 17th 2020, Felsenkeller, Leipzig, Germany
Darkerkant, 14-15 October 2022, Cap San Diego, Hamburg, Germany
Ancient Echoes, 7-8 June 2023, Leipzig, Germany