Artist Statement – Aksinia Kupriianova

My practice unfolds through painting, drawing, and collage as a sustained inquiry into psychological states. I am drawn to moments of emotional uncertainty, vulnerability, and inner tension—states that resist clear definition and exist somewhere between presence and disappearance.

Painting functions as a slow and intuitive process of internal observation. Rather than representing external reality, I use colour, softness, and brushwork to register subtle emotional shifts. The paintings are built through restraint and lyricism, allowing moods to surface gradually. What may appear gentle or feminine operates as a deliberate strategy: softness becomes a method of attention, a way of staying with complexity without forcing resolution. Ambiguity is essential—it keeps the work open, fragile, and alive.

Drawing occupies the most intimate space within my practice. I work primarily with portrait-like figures rendered through a fragile, unstable line. This fragility is not only formal but conceptual: the line reflects the vulnerability of the human condition, as well as my own position as an observing and exposed subject. The figures often resemble caricatures, where distortion becomes a means of approaching truth rather than exaggeration.

In the drawings, humour functions as a conceptual and psychological instrument rather than a narrative device. Through caricature-like distortion, I introduce distance that allows emotional exposure without direct confession. Humour softens self-examination, enabling the exploration of identity, vulnerability, and projection while resisting sentimentality or fixed interpretation. Each figure exists somewhere between the self and the other, becoming a site where personal introspection and shared human experience intersect.

Collage introduces another layer of inquiry through memory and historical perception. These works often centre on figures assembled from fragmented imagery and references to the past. By cutting, assembling, and reconfiguring visual material, I approach memory as unstable and subjective. The past appears not as a fixed narrative, but as a construction—continually revised, imagined, and emotionally reassembled.

Occasional traces of post-Soviet cultural imagery appear in my work not as a central theme, but as residual fragments—background noise within a broader psychological landscape. My primary concern remains the inner life: how emotions are shaped, softened, distorted, or protected through visual form.

Across all media, my practice is guided by attentiveness to fragility, intimacy, and restraint. I am interested in how images can hold uncertainty, how humour can coexist with tenderness, and how visual language can function as a quiet space for psychological reflection rather than declaration.