Svitlana Soldatova

You feel Ukraine like your body, and it hurts. You can say that I live in the news during the day and see [the war] in my dreams at night.

Svitlana Soldatova

Svitlana Soldatova is a Ukrainian-Australian artist whose realistic oil paintings and graphic works are strongly influenced by Ukrainian naive art.

Svitlana Soldatova was born on December 30, 1962, in Kyiv, into a family of artists. In 1981 she graduated from Taras Shevchenko State Art School. After that, Svitlana Soldatova started to  work as a  theater illustrator. In 1981 she opened the personal art exhibition in the House of Writers of Ukraine, and in 1992 she took part in the international poster triennial “Human. Nature. Society”. In 1988 Svitlana was admitted to the Artists’ Union of Ukraine (poster section). Since 1993 the artist has actively worked as a painter, and in 1995 immigrated to Australia on the professional immigration program, where she immediately started cooperation with the Ukrainian Artists Society of Australia. From 1996 to 1999, Svitlana studied at the Design Centre Enmore of Sydney Technological Institute. Since 2000 she has worked in Australia as a graphic designer and illustrator. Since 2016 Svitlana Soldatova has cooperated with Kharkiv publishing house “ASSA.” In particular, she has already made illustrations for the book “Wonderful Wonders.” It was a volunteer project (in favor of the wounded soldiers of ATO). Now the artist lives in Sydney and cooperates as an illustrator with the local publishing house “Sova Books,” where Ukrainian literature is published in English.