Overthinking Painting

Ellaya Yefymova (b. 1990, Ukraine) is a dark artist whose work fuses her medical background with a deep appreciation for science, art, and the human body. Her artistic journey began in 2020, sparked by global lockdown and a period of maternity leave, which allowed her to reassess her goals and fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming an artist. In 2020 she was a nominee for Portal Art prize (Kyiv, Ukraine), in 2021 - for Art Gemini prize (London, UK). In 2023, she participated in the London Art Biennale. Following the outbreak of war in 2022, Ellaya relocated to Lisbon, Portugal, where her work began to delve into themes of mortality and the perception of death as a powerful motivation to live this life consciously. Influenced by the concept of vanitas, Ellaya explores the transience of life and the inevitability of death. Unlike the allegorical art of Baroque vanitas, which often concealed symbolic meanings, her work is more direct, offering reflections on mortality without romanticizing death, but also without frightening by it. Her aim is to reinterpret the Memento Mori tradition with a modern lens, layering it with new meaning. Ellaya views art as a universal language capable of uniting people. She believes it is time for humanity to cease wasting lives and resources on wars and instead focus on technological, emotional, and personal evolution - to finally become a better version of humans - “humans 2.0.”