Svitlana Zezekalo was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in November 1974. Her journey as an artist began not in a studio, but in the stillness of pine forests, during a childhood spent with her grandmother in a village outside the city. The natural beauty of that landscape — quiet, grounding, and deeply textured — left an early imprint on her soul. It would later reappear in her art, not always literally, but in the emotional undercurrents of silence, memory, and resilience that define her work.
As her family moved closer to the city, Svitlana began formal art training at a children’s art school. There, she discovered a profound love for sculpture and painting. Her early promise was recognized when two of her works were selected for a student exhibition in France — a milestone that hinted at a future in art.
But life, as it often does, interrupted that path.
From Silence to Survival
Despite her talent, Svitlana’s journey was not linear. Life forced her into early adulthood. Financial hardship meant she had to begin working young to support her family. Over time, personal challenges— including domestic abuse and, most devastatingly, the loss of her son — pulled her even further from her creative calling. For years, painting was something she could not afford — not in time, not in energy, not in spirit.
Yet the pain she endured never vanished. It collected within her, silent but potent, until it could no longer be held.
The Return to Art During War
In 2014, as conflict first erupted in Ukraine, something in Svitlana shifted. Faced with the emotional burden of war and years of unresolved grief, she returned to painting — not as a hobby, but as a vital need. “I couldn’t carry the weight of emotions in silence anymore,” she says. “Art became my language of resilience, my space for honesty and survival.”
This period marked the rebirth of her artistic voice. Her canvases began to speak with raw authenticity, rooted in her lived experience. Her work expressed not just pain, but the strength it takes to live through it. Painting became her way of making sense of loss — of honoring what had been taken and reclaiming what still remained.
A New Home, A New Chapter
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Svitlana was once again forced to make a life-altering decision. For the safety of her children, she relocated to Karlovac, Croatia. In the quiet of a new country, she found a kind of peace — and with it, a renewed connection to her creativity.
In Karlovac, she joined the local artists’ union ULAK and began exhibiting her work again. The support of the community, the act of sharing her story, and the act of creating not only revived her practice but redefined it. Painting was no longer something she had to leave behind; it was now a daily act of grounding, healing, and building anew.
The Series “Adulthood”: Blossoming Without Fairytales
Svitlana’s series titled Adulthood is among her most emotionally resonant bodies of work. The paintings explore what it means to grow up too soon — to lose innocence, to become your own protector, to bloom not in gardens of ease, but in landscapes of hardship.
There are no fairytales in these works, and yet they are far from bitter. Each painting carries within it a quiet dignity — a tender strength that comes not from denial of suffering, but from embracing it with honesty. These are not images of despair, but of transformation: beauty born from endurance.
The Crystal Castle: A Gaze Into Stillness
In her painting The Crystal Castle, Svitlana invites the viewer into a dreamlike moment — a gaze into silence, where illusion melts and clarity is born. The title evokes fantasy, yet the piece itself offers something deeper: the realization that true strength lies not in escape, but in awakening.
The Crystal Castle is not a place of refuge, but a space of reckoning. It reflects her journey of confronting illusion — whether of safety, permanence, or control — and choosing to see clearly, even when it hurts. It is a poetic testament to vulnerability as a form of wisdom.
Painting from Lived Experience
Svitlana Zezekalo does not paint from imagination alone. Her art is rooted in memory, in loss, in the small daily acts of survival. Every brushstroke is shaped by moments she has lived — some joyful, many painful — but all meaningful. Her work does not ask the viewer for pity. Instead, it invites reflection: on what it means to endure, to create in the aftermath, and to speak one’s truth when words are not enough.
There is a quiet bravery in her approach. Her art is not about spectacle — it’s about presence. She doesn’t hide behind abstraction or theory. She paints directly from the core of her being, offering her story as a mirror through which others might see their own.
A Voice of Strength and Sensitivity
Today, Svitlana continues to live and work in Karlovac, Croatia. She paints not for recognition, but because it is her way of being fully alive. Through her practice, she transforms pain into poetry, solitude into strength, and memory into meaning.
Her journey — from the forests of Ukraine to the galleries of Croatia — is not just about displacement and return. It is about the resilience of the human spirit, and the quiet power of art to keep us whole when life tries to break us.
