Yuliia Kravchenko

Yuliia Kravchenko
Between Icon and Everyday – The Radiant World of Contemporary Portraiture

Born in 1995 in Ukraine, Yuliia Kravchenko represents a new generation of artists whose creative identity has taken shape between worlds. Her extraordinary talent became evident early on and was nurtured through formal training at an art school, laying the foundation for a remarkable artistic path.

Her education reflects the versatility of her later practice: after studying design at the Cherkasy State Business College, she deepened her knowledge in 2017 with a degree in graphic design at the renowned Kyiv National University of Technology and Design.

Her painting moves skillfully between Pop Art and Modern Art, manifesting in expressive, large-format portraits of style icons from fashion, film, and sport. Kravchenko transforms her canvases into vibrant stages, where collaged elements—quotes, text fragments, symbols—develop a language of their own. Her signature features include luminous acrylic paints and striking neon accents, which reveal an almost magical glow under blacklight.

What defines Kravchenko’s work is her deep engagement with the worlds of her subjects. Music, lyrics, and film flow into her creative process, and biographical research is transformed into visual poetry. She also goes beyond conventional canvases, using unexpected objects—oil drums, champagne bottles—as carriers of her imagery, turning the everyday into elements of her pictorial universe.

Kravchenko’s art is both a tribute to the icons of our time and a reflection on the thresholds between art and life, the sacred and the ordinary. In her works, Ukrainian emotionality merges with a German longing for precision—creating a visual language that unites the best of both worlds.