Camouflage | 2025-2026

My recent work revisits events connected to Ukraine, reintroducing them through seemingly ordinary everyday subjects. Created using found materials, ashes, oil paint, charcoal, and pastel, these works emerged after my relocation to Spain, a move prompted by the war in Ukraine.

Privately titled Camouflage, the series reflects a state of adaptation, displacement, and emotional transition. Material itself becomes a carrier of memory: ashes evoke destruction and loss; fabric suggests fragility and protection; rope and stitching speak of repair, connection, and resilience; while barbed wire introduces notions of borders, confinement, and violence.

Throughout the series, familiar motifs become metaphors. Portraits emerge beneath translucent layers, as if identities were being concealed, protected, or slowly reconstructed. Everyday objects such as eggs, potatoes, and domestic textiles recur throughout the works, transforming symbols of nourishment, home, and continuity into reflections on survival during times of uncertainty.

The works oscillate between exposure and concealment. Faces dissolve into camouflage-like surfaces, bodies become partially obscured, and figures hide among repetitive patterns and natural forms. This tension between visibility and disappearance mirrors the psychological experience of war, where memory, fear, and hope coexist.

Several pieces extend beyond the pictorial surface. Wooden crosses, stitched fabrics, braided ropes, and barbed wire physically enter the work, creating a dialogue between image and object. These interventions emphasize the material reality of trauma while simultaneously suggesting protection, resistance, and healing.

Rather than depicting conflict directly, Camouflage approaches war through its traces: the subtle ways it infiltrates everyday life, reshapes identity, and transforms ordinary objects into vessels of remembrance. Situated between personal testimony and universal reflection, the works explore how resilience emerges from vulnerability and how beauty persists in the aftermath of loss.

View works ↓