In her evocative painting “Immersion,” Ukrainian artist Tamara Shyrai masterfully captures the intimate union of two elemental forces: water and the cosmos. The canvas becomes a space where air bubbles swirl in harmony with distant constellations, creating a metaphysical dialogue between worlds. More than a visual experience, this piece invites contemplation.
Tamara describes Immersion as a descent—a dive to the ocean floor, a push from the sand, and then a rise upward through liquid and light into space. She tried to convey the water element in union with space, the space of the universe a single whole, the statics and movement of life. The result is a meditation on the cyclical nature of existence, the balance between gravity and release, between rootedness and transcendence.
Crete: A Living Muse
Now based on the island of Crete for over six years, Tamara finds continuous inspiration in the landscape surrounding her. The island’s serene beaches, dramatic mountains, and lush orchards have become her studio in nature. These places are not just scenes to paint—they are emotional touchstones.
Drawn by the wild beauty of the land, she often heads into nature with her materials in hand. That elusive state of celebration of life and the abundance of beauty of nature’s generosity fuels her brush. Her oils on canvas—and occasionally watercolors on paper—translate this inspiration into vibrant, emotive works that carry the rhythm of her adopted home.
Roots in Lviv, A Voice for the World
Tamara’s artistic foundation was laid in Ukraine, where she earned a Master’s degree from the Lviv National Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts. There, she refined both her technical precision and her ability to express emotion through form and color. But her practice evolved far beyond technique.
Art became a language—one in which she could express inner landscapes, spiritual ideas, and emotional truths. Her work, steeped in metaphor, becomes a visual diary. Rather than explain the world, her paintings explore it intuitively. She strives to bring forward hope, beauty, and serenity, especially in uncertain times.
Today, her paintings are part of private collections across Ukraine, France, Germany, Sweden, and the United States—a testament to their universal resonance.
The Shift Toward Abstraction
In her sunlit Crete studio, Tamara has shifted more deeply into abstraction and intuitive expression. Improvisation plays a central role in her current practice. For her, the process is a dialogue between thought and instinct—an exploration rather than a destination.
This fluid approach reflects her interest in transformation. “I’m drawn to creating something new,” she reflects. With each canvas, she experiments—sometimes with materials, sometimes with gesture, sometimes with ideas. Her aim is not to deliver fixed meanings, but to spark emotional or spiritual recognition in the viewer.
By embracing spontaneity, her paintings evoke feeling rather than fact. They don’t narrate they resonate.
Exhibitions and Recognition
Over the years, Tamara’s work has gained visibility in the European art scene. In 2020, she held a solo exhibition at the Kissamos Archaeological Museum in Crete, titled “The Picturesqueness of the Full Moon.” The show wove together the luminous symbolism of the moon with themes of mystery, presence, and natural wonder.
Most recently, in 2024, her work was exhibited at Flaer Art Gallery in Rome. The show marked another milestone in her international journey, and highlighted her evolving style—anchored in emotion, open to the cosmos.
Art as Inner Compass
Tamara Shyrai’s work exists at the intersection of memory, nature, and imagination. Whether she is painting cosmic underwater worlds or pure abstractions of thought and mood, her artistic vision is deeply personal—and deeply human.
She lives between traditions and techniques, between Ukraine and Greece, between water and sky. Her work honors both the visible world and the unseen forces that move within it.
In Immersion, and in much of her recent output, Tamara offers us a moment to pause an invitation to look inward, drift outward, and embrace the interconnected dance of all things.
