Darya Khus

I paint women, and above all their eyes. For me the gaze is the most honest part of a person — the place where nothing can be faked — and I work each portrait in oil until the eyes seem to look back and quietly ask the viewer a question about themselves.

My work sits between figurative portraiture and something more inward. Each face carries a single human quality — strength, courage, kindness, honesty — and I think of the series as an invitation: to look closely, and to let a little of that quality pass into you.

I work in oil on canvas and linen, building the surface in slow layers until the painting stops being paint and becomes a presence in the room. Trained at the University of Westminster in London, I have exhibited with galleries in Spain and now paint from Czechia, with a show at the Mánes Gallery in Prague this September.

MA in Art, University of Westminster, London

Upcoming: Manés Gallery in Prague, September 2026