The aerospace entrepreneur and founder of the Lyra Art Foundation brings a reverence for experimentation to her work and her art collection.

The aerospace entrepreneur and founder of the Lyra Art Foundation brings a reverence for experimentation to her work and her art collection.

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Tanya Fileva with Cecily Brown’s Skulldiver II, 2006. Photography by Jegor Zaika. Image courtesy of Fileva.

The Siberia-born, San Francisco-based aerospace entrepreneur, 34, founded the Lyra Art Foundation to support artists making boundary-pushing work. As a collector, she also seeks out creatives who experiment relentlessly.

Which work in your collection provokes the most conversation from visitors?

Yoko Ono’s Painting to Hammer a Nail In (Bronze Age). The original work is an example of her groundbreaking participatory art. It is important to me to support overlooked voices and to recognize artists who are forging new paths, both historically and in the present day.

Name three artists you are particularly excited about right now.

I recently learned about the incredible work of Sylvia Sleigh and acquired a beautiful example, Felicity Rainnie Reclining, 1972. Jenny Saville is an artist I have long admired, and I look forward to [seeing] her important exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Finally, Dominique Fung—I am excited she is receiving the attention she deserves, especially leading up to her ICA San Francisco show with Heidi Lau opening in January 2026.

What work in your home have you spent the most time staring at?

Sarah Lucas’s Bunny Gets Snookered #8, 1997. It is a very provocative, sexy work. I like its joking, tongue-in-cheek humor, and the way the work’s meaning is not completely clear or resolved. It raises more questions than answers.

If you could sit down for lunch with one artist, living or dead, who would it be? Why? 

Agnes Denes is a true visionary and an important, underrecognized voice of our time. Her ideas about nature, mankind, and the evolution of civilizations presaged so many things we are grappling with as a society. She tackles diverse subjects, including philosophy, psychology, science, and math to explore humanity’s past, present, and future. We would have so much to talk about.

Do you see collecting as an extension of skills you’ve honed in your day job, or an escape from them?

Collecting is an extension of my skills as an entrepreneur, investor, pilot, and aircraft builder. I love seeing the possibilities of something in its early stages and helping it grow and develop to its greatest potential. Through my foundation, I hope to bring innovative and unexpected partnerships to life to offer something truly new and ambitious, fostering creativity in all forms and promoting women’s voices in business, art, and culture.

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