Nat Derevyanko

As a narrative symbolist, I create emotionally charged
paintings that explore the loss of home, the fragility of
personal space, vulnerability, alienation, and belonging. My visual language is rooted in sacred art, which marked the
beginning of my artistic journey and continues to influence my practice.

I work through symbolic and imaginative imagery, bringing personal memories into dialogue with collective experience. Childhood becomes a lens through which I examine how early fears, emotional wounds, and memories continue to shape adult life. My paintings blur the boundaries between innocence and anxiety, reality and imagination, fragility and transformation.

Forced displacement following the war in Ukraine and my
relocation to Italy profoundly shaped my artistic perspective. I create to understand the experience of losing one's home and gradually searching for a new place - both physical and internal. Through my work, I seek to transform vulnerability from a condition of weakness