Natalka Shust-Tsymbaliuk

I am a Ukrainian artist working primarily with drawing. My practice explores silence, memory and absence — not as abstract ideas, but as states that shape how we experience places, images and one another.

I work mainly with graphite, combining detailed drawing with fragmented imagery, material interventions, colour and repetition. Familiar landscapes, figures and domestic spaces become psychologically charged, often carrying a sense of interruption, distance or something that has disappeared.

I am interested in the moment when an image stops being simply a representation of reality and begins to function as a trace of memory. Drawing allows me to build these images slowly, layer by layer, while leaving visible traces of both construction and erasure.

My series Silence is an ongoing exploration of this tension — between presence and absence, memory and reality, what remains and what can no longer be seen.

1999–2005: Studied at the Lviv Ivan Trush College of Decorative Arts.
2007: Earned a Master’s degree in Art Textiles from the Lviv National Academy of Arts.
2007: Awarded a scholarship from Poland’s Ministry of Culture under the “Gaude Polonia” program, completing a six-month internship in the Art Textiles Department at the Łódź Art Academy, Poland.

2005 – Lviv, Palace of Arts: Participant in the International Art Exhibition at the Lviv Autumn Salon “High Castle” (Vysokyy zamok).
2006 – Lviv, Museum of Ideas: Participant in the artistic event “The Lion’s Share”.
2006 – Lviv, Participant in the International Youth Symposium of Artistic Textiles “ArheNytkaNovo”.
2007 – Lviv, Palace of Arts: Participant in the International Art Exhibition at the Lviv Autumn Salon “High Castle” (Vysokyy zamok).
2007 – Lviv, State Historical and Cultural Museum “Nahuyevychi”: Personal exhibition Polychrome (art textile).
2007 – Lviv, Participant in the “Gaude Polonia” scholarship program exhibition.
2008 – Lviv, Museum of Ethnography: Participant in the Art Project “Rainbow” (Veselka).
2008 – Lviv, Palace of Arts: Biennale “Initiative”.
2009 – Lviv, Palace of Arts: Exhibition “Landscape: A Modern Look”.
2009 – Odesa, Participant in the Ukrainian exhibition “God Easter” (Svit Bozhyi Velykden). 2009 – Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine: Participant in the international art project “Stibnyy Square” (Stibnyi kvadrat).
2009 – Paris, France, Ukrainian Cultural Center: Participant in the exhibition “5 Interpretations of Ukraine”.
2009 – Lviv, “Green Sofa” Gallery: Christmas exhibition (Zelena Kan...