YUNA / Yuliana Popova

Artist statement

My work is an exploration of the fragility of the human spirit within a world full of pressure and stigma.

Rooted in personal experience, my paintings depict vulnerability not as a weakness, but as a source of strength — a force capable of transforming pain into forward momentum.

Through metaphorical images of women immersed in wild nature — a symbol of uncontrollable forces — I investigate themes of mental health, substance dependency, the weight of social standards, and codependency.

The figures in my paintings are often nude or draped in sheer fabrics, underscoring their vulnerability, but also their openness to inner transformation.

The work poses essential questions: How can we embrace our own vulnerability? How do we step out of the shadow of shame and stereotype? How can we find beauty within difficult emotional states and destructive experiences?

My art is a dialogue with society—an appeal for empathy and the normalization of difficult emotions. It invites viewers to see vulnerability not as a shortcoming, but as the beginning of a journey toward inner freedom.

Biography

A practice shaped by the north, academic training, and material pressure.

Northern origin Palyanovo, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug

Academic training Sverdlovsk Art College named after I. D. Shadr

Practice Saint Petersburg, painting and the Imperial Porcelain Factory

She was born in 1995 in the village of Palyanovo in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.

In 2005, she and her family moved to the Ural region. In 2013, she began her studies at the I.D. Shadr Sverdlovsk Art College, majoring in Easel Painting, and graduated in 2017.

After graduating, she moved to Khanty-Mansiysk, where she taught academic drawing, painting, and composition, and also created sets and decorations for school events.

In 2019, she relocated to Saint Petersburg, where she began experimenting with various techniques, materials, and genres.

In 2020, she took part in establishing "Khudozhka.Online," the first licensed online art school in Russia, where she worked as a teacher of academic drawing until the fall of 2025.

In the winter of 2024, she shifted her focus from teaching back to her personal artistic practice, during which she developed and defined her unique authorial style.

Currently, she works as a painter at the Imperial Porcelain Factory in Saint Petersburg. Alongside her work at the factory, she is developing several series of paintings and continues to refine and perfect her artistic style.