Resistance Painting

Nadiia Rom is a Ukrainian artist based in London. She graduated from the Poltava National Polytechnic University in Ukraine, where she was studying architecture. She worked as an architect and an interior designer in Ukraine and Europe. In 2016 she turns to painting and now exhibits in Europe and UK. Nadiia came to London in 2023 and she works in oils and pastels, creating figurative and abstract compositions. She is a recipient of several awards. What my art is about: My art is centred around emphasizing the beauty of simple things that people usually don’t notice and, hence, underestimate. By looking through a prism of my own pain and anxiety caused by war in my homeland, I explore the ways of processing trauma through my art, including the trauma of irreversible losses. I’m aiming to uncover how simple and easily reached things bring balance and stability to out life. By capturing the colors of nature around or quick everyday emotions of people surrounding me with oil on canvas and with pastels or watercolors on paper, My art is about what remains unspoken. About experiences that cannot be put into words. About the pauses in which a new identity is born. We are used to telling stories with words — but what if words are not enough? What if language begins with silence? I try invites into empathy, self-reflection, and acceptance — of oneself, of others, and of the unspeakable. In a time of collective trauma, forced displacement, constant adaptation, and hybrid existence between offline and online worlds, we all live in a state of transition — from one self to another. Some parts of our experience remain silent — without words. In times when it’s easy to lose oneself, it is vital to give this silence artistic form — so that it does not freeze, or disappear, but can transform: into presence, gesture, touch, memory.