Bio Nataliya Derevyanko
Nat Pop is a contemporary painter whose work centers on memory, vulnerability, and psychological transformation. Working primarily in modular square formats, she creates intimate figurative compositions that merge elements of childhood iconography, natural symbolism, and subtle surrealism.Her paintings function as fragments of an evolving inner archive – exploring how early emotional experiences shape identity and resilience. Through a restrained yet emotionally charged palette, she constructs visual narratives that balance fragility with quiet strength.
She lives and works in Avezzano, Italy.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I work across various techniques, allowing my practice to evolve naturally with the different stages of my life. My journey began with sacred art, a formative period that deeply influenced my visual language and continues to shape my artistic voice.
My work explores memory as a living psychological landscape. I approach painting as a process of reconstruction – assembling fragments of personal history into a modular visual archive. Each square panel functions as an autonomous moment: a shard of lived experience suspended in silence.
My practice exists in the space between realism and decorativeness, where intimate figuration meets symbolic stylization.
Childhood appears in my work not as nostalgia, but as a formative territory – a place where fear, vulnerability, imagination, and resilience originate. Recurring symbols such as birds, nests, seeds, botanical forms, and elements of armament act as metaphors for protection, instinct, fragility, and transformation. These elements form a private mythology through which I examine emotional inheritance and self-formation.
My practice is deeply informed by my personal experience of exile following the war in Ukraine. Now based in Italy, I channel the rupture between homeland and displacement into visual testimony. My paintings do not declare political positions; rather, they bear witness to emotional fragmentation and the reconstruction of meaning from memory’s debris.
The repetition of format creates a sense of containment, while strong monochromatic contrasts – especially the use of saturated pink against darkness or emptiness – emphasize the tension between exposure and concealment. My figures are often guarded, partially hidden, or turned inward. This gesture of withdrawal is not disappearance; it is self-preservation.
Through revisiting early emotional states, I do not attempt to escape the past. I move through it. Painting becomes an act of integration – transforming fragmentation into coherence, fear into awareness, and fragility into strength.
Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine.
Member of the Union of Designers of Ukraine.
Associate Professor, Department of Design, Khortytsia National Academy.
Book illustrations:
• Black snowdrop. Vikhlyaev Poetry. Zaporizhzhya: Publishing house KPU, 2010. – 120 с.: iл.
• Fairy tales for little princesses. Pictures in stories - К.: Publishing house «Master class», 2012. –
• Tales of the White Rabbit. Pictures in stories. - К.: Publishing house «Master class», 2013. –
• Treasures for little children – К. : Publishing house «Master class», 2012. – (The best for children series)
• Simonenko. I want, I want gifts – К. : Publishing house «Master class», 2014.
• Kovalchuk. My angel. – Lutsk: View of the old oak tree, 2016.
Exhibitions:
1999 – collective exhibition of sacred art – gallery «Yarovit», Lviv;
2000 – collective exhibition «Autumn vernissage» - Palace of Arts, Lviv;
2002 – collective exhibition «Сentro storico» – Trasacco (Italy);
2002 – 2nd place in the plein air – Poggiofiorito (Italy);
2003 – personal «Seven days of the creation of the world» (Sette giorni, sette eventi) - Teatro della Regina – Cattolica (Italy);
2003 – personal «Ortucchio and its inhabitants» (Ortucchio ed ortucchiesi) - Castello Piccolomini, Ortucchio (Italy)
2004 – special prize in the competition «Valle Giovengo» – Lecce nei Marsi (Italy);
2004 – personal exhibition «The world of icons» (Il mondo delle icone) - Castello Orsini, Avezzano (Italy);
2005 – collective exhibition «Miracolo di Lanciano» – Lanciano, 2004 (Italy);
2005 – collective exhibition «Spazio d’arte» – Verdelais (France);
2005 – collective exhibition «Marguttiana d’arte» – Antichi forni, Macerata (Italy);
2005 – collective exhibition «Mondo colori» - Palazzetto dei Nobili - L’Aquila(Italy);
2005 – personal exhibition «Colors… Symbols… Suffering…» (Colori… Simboli… Passione…) – L’Aquila (Italy);
2005 – 3rd place in the exhibition competition XIII Premio «G.D’Annunzio» – Pescara (Italy);
2006 – collective exhibition «PAN» – Pannarano (Italy);
2006 – 2nd place in the exhibition competition XIV Premio «G.D’Annunzio» – Pescara (Italy);
2007 – All-Ukrainian exhibition «Ukrainian women artists» - Kyiv;
2007 – laureate of the gifted youth competition «Stepping towards mastery» - Zaporizhzhya;
2007 – All-Ukrainian exhibition «Christmas» - Kyiv;
2008 – VI All-Ukrainian artistic plein air «Khortytsya through the ages - 2008» - Zaporizhzhya;
2009 – All-Ukrainian exhibition «God world is like Easter» - Odessa;
2009 – All-Ukrainian exhibition «The magical colors of the Dnipro» – Dnepr;
2009 – 1 triennial «Ukrainian folk modern – 2009» – Chernivtsi;
2009 – All-Ukrainian exhibition «Christmas» – Kyiv;
2010 – All-Ukrainian exhibition «Easter» – Kyiv.
2011 – IХ All-Ukrainian artistic plein air «Khortytsya through the ages- 2011» - Zaporizhzhya;
2011 – collective exhibition «Snowiness» – Zaporozhye Regional Universal Library named after. A.M. Gorky;
2011 – collective exhibition «Aesthetic education. Children art gallery» – Chocolate House Kyiv;
2012 – Kyiv Publish Fashion Day. "Gutenberg stormtroopers";
2012 – collective exhibition «Aesthetic education. Children art gallery» – Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk;
2013 – Triennial of book graphics, Kyiv;
2013 – personal exhibition «Spring Tale», Zaporizhzhya;
2016 – VI all-Ukrainian art plein air «Khortytsya through the ages - 2016» - Zaporizhzhya;
2016 – collective exhibition for Artist Day, Exhibition Hall, Zaporizhzhya;
2016 – personal exhibition «Hunting for sun hares», Art salon, Zaporizhzhya;
2016 – collective exhibition with N. Bendus-Petrovskaya and L. Yakimenko "Christmas stories" in ART AREA "CH", Kharkiv.
2019 – “Under the sign of autumn” ZONSHU;
2019 – “Before the Day of the Artist, the Day of the City of Zaporizhzhya”;
2019 – “Rizdvyana” ZONSHU,
2020 – “Quarantine” ZONSHU.
2020 – «No angry birds», Distinction gallery, Escondido, California (US);
2021 – «Sottosopra», Rome (Italy).
2025 – mostra internazionale “Salvare i bambini. Salvare il futuro”, Parlamento Europeo (Roma)
2026 – Biennale internazionale di Potenza Italy
2026 – OltreForma Art Prize, Francolise (Italy)