"Pause" Painting

Yaryna Shumska is a multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges the gap between performance and abstract painting, creating what she calls an "archive of action."

Based in Ukraine, Shumska is an internationally established artist with a practice spanning painting, performance art, and installation. Her work has gained significant recognition through exhibitions and projects across France, Germany, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Her artistic geography is truly global, ranging from the Venice International Performance Art Week and Tokyo to Bangkok, Barcelona, and the Arctic Action in Svalbard.

In Shumska’s work, painting and performance form an inseparable synthesis. A significant place in her practice is occupied by abstract painting from the 2008–2020 period, which served as a foundation for exploring the canvas as a space for "inhabiting" action. In these works, color and texture function not merely as visual elements, but as mediums for internal rhythm and energy. These canvases laid the groundwork for her current practice, where painting is transformed into a direct imprint of physical presence.

Today, her painting emerges as an "archive of action": the canvas captures the dynamics of a gesture, manifesting the fluidity of a moment into a tangible object. Shumska’s works are not mere decorations but intellectual artifacts documenting human existence. Each canvas is a tangible record of a fleeting moment, making her pieces essential for collections focused on contemporary conceptual abstraction and performative traces.