Valley Life : sights : Sweet Liberty : Artists from former Soviet Union show work celebrating the idea of creative freedom.

Ann Krasner saw her future as a dead end. Ivan Shvarts did not dare speak of religion. Alexander Shagin felt as if he was always being watched.

They are among 19 artists from the former Soviet Union whose works are featured in the exhibition “Obscurity to Freedom” at the Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance’s Finegood Art Gallery in West Hills.

Their work, which ranges from painted silk to collage to photography, reflects on the theme of artistic freedom in the United States.

“I came from Russia 10 years ago with a degree in mathematics and computer science,” said painter Ann Krasner, 32, of Malibu. “I didn’t have any professional training in painting whatsoever. A couple of years ago I started painting, and six months later I was winning prizes.”

Krasner created her vibrant “Graduates” after learning she would get an exhibition in Paris. The painting is a swirl of motion with bright colors, cartoonish dancing figures and a Paris skyline that seems to be swaying to music.

It stands in contrast to how she felt in the Soviet Union.

“I was 21 years old, just graduating from university, and I saw the life of Jewish people,” she said. “There was no opportunity for young people at all. When I graduated from university, I was told, ‘No one wants to hire you because you’re Jewish.’ ”

Artist Ivan Shvarts, of Sherman Oaks, 52, whose painting “The Ego and the Id” combines his interest in Asian art and Freud, left the Soviet Union in 1976 and also has negative memories.

“At that time, everything was controlled,” said Shvarts, 52. “Everything was for Soviet propaganda. Everything was about capitalistic corruption polluting your mind, things like that.”

Once Shvarts came to the U.S., he was struck by the artistic freedom he found.

“At first, I still had thoughts of ‘No, I shouldn’t do this. Maybe they’re going to criticize me,’ ” he said. “It was a phobia, and it took me a long time to get over it. Finally I realized, ‘I can paint the president--with horns!’ ”

Alexander Shagin, a medalic sculptor who makes intricate coins, has similar memories of the former Soviet Union. His bas-relief “Liberty/Fiddler,” commissioned by the Ellis Island Foundation, features an Old World fiddler framed by the Statue of Liberty and the Russian word svoboda.

“Svoboda means liberty and, at the same time, freedom. Russian culture, Russian people and Russian language are so poor, they need only one word to describe both liberty and freedom,” said Shagin, of Santa Monica, who came to the U.S. in 1979.

Although Shagin, now in his late 40s, had a good job in the Soviet Union designing coins at the mint, he felt stifled by the atmosphere.

“The artists’ union was so powerful that they dismissed anything that didn’t fit the party lines,” he said. “What was sanctioned was mostly very positive, very sanitized, borderline propaganda work.”

Since arriving in Los Angeles, Shagin said the feeling of always being watched has disappeared.

“Never, never, never in L.A.! It’s wonderful,” he said. “Unless you cross La Cienega at the Wilshire Boulevard intersection on a red light. Then you’re in trouble.”

BE THERE

“Obscurity to Freedom” runs through Oct. 31 at the Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance’s Finegood Art Gallery, Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus, 22622 Vanowen St., West Hills. Hours: Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; closed Saturday. Free admission. (818) 464-3218.