Biography

I am a Ukrainian contemporary artist and photographer currently based in Amsterdam. Over the past two decades, I have cultivated a self-directed artistic practice rooted in photography, illustration, and photo-therapy (2005–2025), augmented by technical training in manga and traditional painting techniques. In 2016, I studied manga and anime at L’Ecole Japonaise de Manga in Angoulême, France, and in 2017 I continued my mixed-media education in the private atelier of Yoshiyasu Tamura in Gunma, Japan.

This multifaceted educational trajectory has shaped my approach to artmaking as an emotionally intuitive, community-rooted, and symbolically rich practice. My work has been exhibited in diverse international contexts, from the Dordrecht Museum in the Netherlands to Tokyo’s FUMA Contemporary and the Nakanojo Biennale in Japan, speaking to a global audience while remaining deeply embedded in my cultural roots.

My work has always explored themes of feminine identity and cultural heritage. I often work with participants in my photography work, where I treat community as both co-creator and as healing space. I am deeply committed to storytelling and symbolism through my work. I strive to capture human connection and emotional depth that can resonate with audiences across cultures.  

Artistic Trajectory 

Since 2011, I have developed a working methodology that uses photography as a tool for female self-cognition, the discovery of personal power, and the articulation of identity through image-making. Over the years, my projects have gradually evolved from intimate portraiture and symbolic rituals to participatory installations that draw on collective storytelling, ritualized grief, and transnational solidarity.

My early series, such as 7 Madonnas of Maidan (2014), emerged from the crucible of national trauma, the Euromaidan revolution, offering archetypal imagery to capture Ukraine’s metamorphosis. Blue Forest and Space (2015) turned to mythic landscapes, meditating on memory and the weight of place. In Breaking Fragility (2019), I began to work directly with communities, inviting 63 Ukrainian women of different ages and body types to participate in a performative ritual of collective vulnerability. Through a visual language of nudity, flour, and mutual care, the project fostered transformation from isolation to empathy.

Artist Statement

This process-oriented, socially engaged mode of working continued in Motanka (2022), a collaboration with Anastasiia Kovalchuk. Involving 100 Ukrainian refugee women and 20 Dutch participants, the project used traditional Ukrainian talismans, eye contact, and embodied rituals like hugging to explore identity, displacement, and resilience. My proposed work, Carpet of Love and Sorrow, is the culmination of this participatory ethos, uniting acts of braiding with storytelling, grief-sharing, and solidarity among Ukrainian women exiled in the Netherlands.

Each project builds upon the last, expanding in scale, ambition, and collaborative depth. My work is always in dialogue with personal and collective memory, grounding abstract emotions like grief and longing into tactile, embodied rituals that invite the audience to witness, join, and remember.

Artistic Vision

At the heart of my practice is a desire to create an emotional commons; spaces where shared sorrow becomes a gateway to collective strength, and where silent rituals carry the weight of what cannot be spoken. I am drawn to the quiet force of communal emotion: the kind that arises in a minute of silence, when people stand together in stillness and remembrance. My work aspires to hold that space, not as spectacle but as sanctuary.

I believe that when people are gently guided to feel together, something opens. A threshold of presence emerges where grief is no longer isolating but becomes mirrored and softened through the gaze of others. This healing field, where participants become co-creators and viewers become witnesses, is where my work lives. I consider collective ritual my primary medium, shaped through photography, silence, grief, support, and myth.

I intentionally work with women, particularly those affected by war, exile, or inherited trauma. I see the act of image-making not as documentation, but as a process of inner transformation, a way of giving form to what often remains invisible. Feminine identity, cultural heritage, and intergenerational pain are themes I return to again and again, with photography serving as both a mirror and a tool of reclamation.

Artistic Approach

My methodology blends elements of social practice, photography, video art, performance, and community ritual. It is deeply participatory and site-responsive. I often work with non-professional participants from specific cultural or diasporic communities, using rituals such as braiding, touch, and eye contact to build trust and emotional connection.

Photography remains a central tool, not for objectification but for relational transformation. The camera becomes an invitation to be seen, to take up space, and to process pain through ritualized performance. The use of natural materials (like flour or fabric) and slow, contemplative gestures (like braiding) allows participants to inhabit a different temporality, one of reflection, mourning, and co-creation.

Projects like Carpet of Love and Sorrow are deliberately modular and mobile. They are designed to travel, to grow, and to adapt to different spaces and communities. This reflects my belief that art should live among people, not just within gallery walls, and should evolve alongside its participants.

Cultural Entrepreneurship 

As an artist committed to social relevance, I am actively developing my role as a cultural entrepreneur. I understand that to realize ambitious, community-driven projects, one must build bridges, across languages, disciplines, and institutions. I have cultivated collaborations with fellow artists like Yoshiyasu Tamura and Anastasiia Kovalchuk, as well as partnerships with local Ukrainian networks, refugee organizations, and art venues throughout Europe.

In developing projects like Carpet of Love and Sorrow, I have sought not only artistic partners but also logistical, institutional, and financial support, engaging with cultural funds, public programming initiatives, and community centers. To communicate the intentions of my work clearly and accessibly, I often integrate oral storytelling, performative actions, and participant feedback into both the presentation and documentation. I produce bilingual materials when necessary and prioritize public conversations, open workshops, and local exhibitions that extend the life of the project beyond its artistic frame.

Whether through gallery installations or civic spaces like Amsterdam’s Dam Square (where I hope to present Carpet of Love and Sorrow), my goal is to create work that is emotionally legible, politically urgent, and spiritually nourishing. I believe in the power of collective making, not only as an aesthetic gesture, but as an act of resistance, healing, and hope.