Polina Samorodok

Self-taught artist whose practice is rooted in observation, materiality and the emotional presence of objects.

After leaving my home country and moving to the UAE, I stepped away from painting for several years. Emigration disrupted my familiar sense of place and identity, and I needed time to rebuild a relationship with myself and understand how I wanted to exist and express myself within a new environment.

When I returned to painting, my approach had changed. I began to work with greater intention, paying closer attention to the objects, forms and spatial relationships that hold my attention and shape my perception.

I have always been deeply drawn to the material world. I rarely experience an object as something neutral or purely functional. Its form, surface, weight, position and relationship to light can carry memory, tension and atmosphere. For me, objects are not passive elements within a composition; they are often what construct the emotional character of a space.

My work focuses on these quiet relationships between object, light and environment. I am interested in how ordinary things can become charged through context, and how a single detail can suggest a place, a state of mind or a moment without the need for a liter...

Harrogate Ladies College