Our dear friends and collectors,
we are delighted to share with you our exciting news - MILADO Art Gallery is turning one year old!
When I founded MILADO Art Gallery a year ago, I had no investors - only my husband's unshakeable belief in me. No large team - in the beginning I was simultaneously the website developer, branding designer, social media manager, and artist scout. And to be honest, no certainty that any of that would ever work. What I did have my passion for the artists I wanted to support, and confidence that art has the enormous power to connect people across cultures and backgrounds.
The idea of founding the gallery came to me while I was working at the London Art Fair 2025. Then I couldn't even dream that just one year later I would be showcasing my own gallery at the famous Business Design Centre in Islington.
I'm very proud that for a past year we have already participated in the three art fairs:
Affordable Art Fair Battersea 2025, London Art Fair 2026 - presenting two booths - Gleb Skubachevsky solo presentation in the Platform section, curated by renowned art historian and author Dr Ferren Gipson, with theme, The Unexpected, celebrated innovation and experimentation in contemporary art, and a group exhibition Following the Thread, featuring five female artists: Deborah Azzopardi, Shahnaz Aghayeva, Marina Altukhova, Tamara Jovandić-Everson, and Olga Prinku and ROSA Botanical Art Fair in Chichester 2026.
We invited guests to our Spring pop-up exhibition in March, achieved many successful sales, published interviews with our artists, visited their studios with clients and curators, created bespoke art workshops and had coffee mornings together.
And now, looking back, I realise how lucky I have been having such inspiring people around, who believed in me, encouraged and helped me to pursue what many would consider a crazy idea: building a gallery from scratch.
I'm also very lucky, that 9 artists I now represent - Deborah Azzopardi, Shahnaz Aghayeva, Marina Altukhova, Tamara Jovandić-Everson,Olga Prinku, Gleb Skubachevsky, Tatiana Fetisova, Valentina Conchie and Arina Orlova trusted my vision and chose to work with me.
And that many of my friends became our collectors, while some collectors became our friends and supporters of the gallery.
One important lesson I have learned is to keep going and don't get discouraged by setbacks. Success often comes when you least expect it.
I'll give you one example - together with our artists we worked incredibly hard on our gallery showcase at the ROSA Botanical Art Fair in Chichester. The reward didn't come during the art fair, but a few weeks later. An email arrived from a visitor who had fallen in love with one of our artworks.
And that sale reminded me again of the power of art - that it continues to resonate with people even after an exhibition or art fair closes. Those unexpected emails and late-night WhatsApp messages asking, "Is the artwork still available?" are the most rewarding moments of all.
Thank you so much for your support and love for our artists and their work!
Warmest wishes,
Milla
Thank you to our supertalanted artist Valentina Conchie, who is an amazong photographer as well, for capturing such beautiful memories for all of us!
“Photography by Valentina Conchie” - https://www.valentina.sg/
