Daria Zavadenko

I was born in Molodohvardeysk, in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, and I now paint in Kyiv. The landscapes of that place never left me. They are not simply views of nature, but fragments of a place that persists in memory, suspended between what remains and what can no longer be reached. I return to the same motifs again and again, searching for the moment when fields of colour and patches of light come together to form a landscape balanced on the threshold between abstraction and recognition.

I work in oil on board with broad brushes and generous amounts of paint, building thick, sculptural surfaces and reducing each scene to a few essential masses. I often work on textured, imperfect surfaces, allowing their irregularities to become part of the painting. These irregularities introduce a quiet tension between the physical surface and the remembered landscape it holds. I leave relief strokes visible where they contribute to the composition. Up close, you see the paint itself and the texture of the surface beneath it. From a distance, the painting opens into spaciousness and soft light. The intimate scale draws the viewer closer, capturing the quiet, fleeting atmosphere of a moment in nature.

My Atmospheric Studies series is...

Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National University, Ukraine
International Relations, 2009–2014

Private Painting Studies with Ukrainian Artists
Individual instruction in painting, composition, colour, light, and painterly technique

10th All Ukrainian Painting Triennial,
Central Exhibition Hall of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine,
June 19, 2025 - July 20, 2025

All-Ukrainian Cultural and Artistic Project Art of Millennia. Ukraine in Search of Origins
Central House of Artists, National Union of Artists of Ukraine
August 14 – August 31, 2025