Anastasiia Kurkova (Stia)
Full Artist Biography
Anastasiia Kurkova (b. 22 October 2000), professionally known as Stia, is a Ukrainian contemporary visual artist and the creator of Emochromism. Her practice is rooted in painting and expands into illustration and 2D background art within contemporary visual and film production contexts. Her work centers on Emochromism — an evolving artistic language where color functions as both emotional and structural system, translating landscape, light, memory, and psychological states into visual form.
She was born in Mariupol, Ukraine, a city located in the warm steppe region near the Sea of Azov and historically associated with the landscape tradition of Arkhip Kuindzhi. Growing up in Eastern Ukraine, surrounded by vast horizons, shifting skies, and strong natural light conditions, she developed an early sensitivity to spatial and chromatic perception, which continues to define her artistic vocabulary.
Early Formation and First Exhibitions
Kurkova began working with oil painting at the age of thirteen. By the age of fourteen, she was already actively participating in exhibitions, including those organized by the Kuindzhi Center of Contemporary Art and Culture in Mariupol in 2014 and subsequent years. During this period, she received recognition in municipal and regional art competitions in the Donetsk region, marking her early presence within local artistic contexts.
In 2017, one of her works was selected for an international charitable initiative and exhibited in Japan as part of the “Aid to the Children in the World” program. This became her first international presentation and an early expansion of her artistic trajectory beyond Ukraine.
Academic Training and Institutional Context
In 2018, she entered the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (NAFAA) in Kyiv, one of the leading art institutions in Ukraine. Her academic training provided a strong foundation in drawing, painting, composition, and monumental art, while also supporting the development of her individual artistic language.
During her studies, she worked under Ihor Melnychuk, a Ukrainian landscape painter and educator, then Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, whose teaching approach continues the Ukrainian landscape painting tradition and contributed to her sensitivity to landscape, light, and painterly perception. She later studied in the Monumental Painting Department under Professor Ivan Pylypenko and Oleksandr Solovey, Head of Department, where she developed approaches to large-scale composition, symbolic structures, and the relationship between painting and architectural space. At the Master’s level, she worked in the studio of Professor Oleksandr Tsugorko, Rector of NAFAA, further refining her conceptual and technical approach to painting.
In 2019, her work was presented in an exhibition organized by NAFAA, marking her integration into the academic exhibition circuit.
Early Solo Exhibitions and Artistic Development
The year 2020 marked a significant transition in her artistic practice. On September 2, 2020, her first solo exhibition, The Color of the Soul, opened at the State Library of Ukraine for Youth in Kyiv, focusing on emotional perception and the expressive capacity of color as a carrier of inner states.
In October 2020, she presented her second solo exhibition, Color Rhapsody, at the Taras Shevchenko House-Museum in Kyiv, further developing her exploration of color as rhythm, memory, and emotional structure, and establishing her presence within the contemporary Ukrainian art scene.
Recognition and Professional Development
In 2021, Kurkova received the distinction “For Service to Art” and became one of the winners of the International Plein Air Art Competition “The Best Artist.” In the same year, she participated in “St. Sophia Plein Air 2021” and in the exhibition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Lesya Ukrainka at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture.
Alongside her artistic practice, she worked as an art instructor at a private art school, teaching drawing and painting. This activity remained secondary to her personal artistic development.
She also served as the organizer and lead artist of the “Kyivska Rus Park” art project, contributing to its visual and curatorial development.
Expansion into Film and Animation
In 2022, Kurkova became a participant and Grand Prix laureate of several national and international art competitions, including “Christmas Ukraine,” “National Talent Parade,” “Etude Vernissage,” and “Hands of Happiness.”
In the same period, she joined the international production of the animated feature film The Peasants (2023), directed by DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman and produced by BreakThru Films. Working in the animation department, she contributed to the hand-painted oil animation process of the film, based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Władysław Reymont.
Her contribution is credited in official production materials and documented on IMDb, TMDB, and BreakThru Films’ official credits.
International Context and Recent Practice
Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kurkova relocated to Poland, where her practice increasingly engaged with themes of displacement, cultural dialogue, memory, and identity within the Ukrainian–Polish context.
In 2023, she participated in a plein-air residency in Switzerland, where direct engagement with alpine landscapes informed new explorations of light, atmosphere, and perceptual depth in painting.
Her works are included in private collections in Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Poland, and have been exhibited in galleries and projects including Galeria Ogrodowa (Kraków), Art Bay Project (Kraków), Pragaleria (Warsaw), and Gallery 36 (Kraków), where they have been presented in exhibition and auction contexts.
Artistic Practice Today
Today, Kurkova is primarily focused on her artistic practice, developing new bodies of work through painting and digital media. Her current research is centered on Emochromism, an evolving visual system where color functions as both language and structure, translating landscape, memory, and psychological states into visual form.
Through Emochromism, she continues to develop painting as a system of emotional perception, positioning it as a medium that transforms experience into visual structure.