Daria Most

Ukrainian visual artist working in oil, papier-mâché and soft pastel. Born in Poltava in 1995, trained as a painter in Kyiv, and now living and working in Montecastello di Vibio, Umbria.

Statement

Two ways of starting

Some of my work starts from an idea. A window, a ritual, a page from an old book of Ukrainian customs, something I want to see made physical. Other pieces start from nothing I can name, just the material and my hand, and whatever comes up.

I've stopped trying to make these two ways of working into one. Some days I need an idea to hold onto. Other days the idea gets in the way.

I paint in oil, build objects out of papier-mâché, and draw with soft pastel. Whichever way a piece starts, I don't sketch first. The image changes as I paint, scrape, erase, redraw, or build, and I follow what the material and my hand do, even when it goes somewhere I hadn't planned.

I'd rather trust that than control it start to finish. When a piece works, someone looking at it feels something specific, even if they can't say what. That's what I'm after.

Biography

Poltava, Kyiv, Umbria

Daria Most was born in Poltava in 1995. She holds an MA in Painting from Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University, where she also completed postgraduate research on hot enamel in contemporary art and later taught painting. She has been a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 2015.

Her work moves between intuitive abstraction and pieces built around a specific idea. It keeps returning to what is hidden and what is shown, to personal memory and inherited custom, to the private world behind a window or a face. She works without preliminary sketches, so the material and the process shape the final image as much as any plan.

She has shown in solo and group exhibitions in Ukraine, Italy, Poland, Germany and the United States, including at the House of Artists in Kyiv and the National Museum of Taras Shevchenko. In 2022 she completed an Artists at Risk / UNESCO residency at the International Center for the Arts in Monte Castello di Vibio. She stayed, and now lives and works there. She is a featured artist for Virtuoso Travel Week 2027.

Curriculum vitae

Selected CV

Download full CV (PDF)

Education

2013–2018 MA in Painting, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University.

2019–2023 Postgraduate research in Art Studies, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University. Research focus: hot enamel in contemporary art (late 20th to early 21st century).

Awards and honours

2026 Selected as Featured Artist, Virtuoso Travel Week 2027, Las Vegas, USA.

2019 Scholarship of the President of Ukraine for Young Artists, Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

2018 Grant of the President of Ukraine for Young Artists, Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

2017 Passion to Perform Art Prize, finalist, and corporate collection acquisition by Yamana Gold, Toronto, Canada.

Residencies

2023 II International Painting Plein Air Niegocin: Masurian Inspirations, Wilkasy, Poland.

2022 Artists at Risk (AR) – UNESCO Residency, International Center for the Arts, Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy.

Solo exhibitions

2022 Windows of Monte Castello, International Center for the Arts, Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy.

2018 Genetic Memory, Art Gallery “Mytets”, Kyiv, Ukraine.

2017 ESC/WOSC-2017, Ukrainian House, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Selected group exhibitions

2026 IX Painting, Drawing and Printmaking Competition, finalist, Fundació Privada Mútua Catalana and Port Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain.

2026 Transformations, curated by Tetyana Shulyak, Kremenchuk City Art Gallery, Kremenchuk, Ukraine.

2025 X All-Ukrainian Triennial “Painting-2025”, House of Artists, Kyiv, Ukraine.

2025 Read Between the Lines, Ninety-Seven Modern, Detroit, USA (online).

2024–2025 Sguardi Plurali sull’Italia Plurale, travelling exhibition: CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Turin; University of Bologna; ARCI, Milan; Carbonia, Italy.

2024 Crimea is Ukraine, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people, House of Artists, Kyiv, Ukraine.

2023 Our Time, Our Space, National Museum of Taras Shevchenko, Kyiv, Ukraine.

2017 Colors of Copper, Galleria Coronado, Clifton, Arizona, USA.

2016 Marler Kunststern 2016, Marl, Germany.

Publications

2025 Under My Skin, exhibition catalogue, edited by Lucrezia Caliani, Osservatoriomaree, Italy (featuring “Fiamma”).

2024 Sguardi Plurali sull’Italia Plurale, exhibition catalogue, edited by Pietro Cingolani and Monica Poggi, Società Umanitaria / FIERI, Italy (featuring “Luce e ombra”).

2018 Genetic Memory, artist’s catalogue, introduction by Olga Konovalova, Sofia-A, Kyiv, Ukraine.

2017 Colors of Copper, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Coronado, Arizona, USA (featuring “She”).

2016 Marler Kunststern 2016, exhibition catalogue, Marl, Germany (featuring “All and Nothing”, “Running on water” and “Pomegranate Seeds”).

Collections

Passion to Perform Corporate Art Collection, Yamana Gold, Toronto, Canada.

Private collections in Europe and North America.

The studio in Montecastello di Vibio, Umbria.