My Saraswati Painting

I am Nastya Zharko, an artist from Kazakhstan who has lived in India, Georgia, Russia, Thailand. I love different cultures, the mix of real ones with those where I travel virtually. The experience of interacting with people from different cultures helped me to delve deeper into the main theme of my work - awareness. Awareness is the topic that runs through all series of my works. I wrap up difficult life situations into innocent images through my own plastic language - "Hedwigs". This fictional world of distorted characters that were born from the influence of visual pop culture and kitsch from the 2000s - like a vivid imprint from childhood. The Hedwigs help to unpack complex and important issues. Their characters are not scaring viewers away with something unbearable, but on the contrary s how harmless and naive images. Through Hedwiigs, I can tell stories about people and for people, drawing attention of everyone to the question “What is really important to me?”