Anna Yakusheva
Life as a project. Art as the doorway.
Biography
"I want to create meaning.
I don't want to be an idea,I want to create ideas.
Ideas are eternal, but people die."
Anna Yakusheva is a Ukrainian artist-researcher living in the UK and working
in the style of metamodernism.
Anna was born in 1991 in the small village of Svetloye, Zaporozhye region, Ukraine. She was the first child in a simple family of a truck driver and a nurse. From early childhood she showed creative abilities, painting the walls in the house with her mother's lipsticks. At school she was very active and participated in all sorts of creative and sporting events. Anna often spent a long time reading books in libraries. In 2007 she started studying academic drawing, classical painting and composition at the local art school.
Anna continued her creative path and in 2013 graduated with honours the Zaporizhzhya National Technical University and received a diploma in interior design. At the university she was a member of the student trade union committee and actively participated in the organisation and create decorations for students
plays and theatre productions. Studying the history and philosophy of the Bauhaus school, Anna created projects that took part in international design competitions, winning several awards. She also began to study art history with great interest, in which she took a special interest in the Renaissance. She studied the works of Leonardo da Vinci and was inspired by the paintings of Raphael.
In 2012 Anna moved to Kiev and worked first as an assistant designer, and two years later as a designer at design studio Sempre Arte. Her projects participated in international interior design competitions and were published in well-known magazines. She also painted paintings individually for the interiors of her projects.
In 2016 Anna accepted the challenge of fate, leaving a promising future as a designer and moved to England. Finding herself in a new country and becoming a mum for the first time in 2017, she faced social and cultural differences of mentalities. All of these life changes spurred her to explore her inner world. She developed an interest in the topic of emotional intelligence, psychology, neuropsychology, philosophy, astrology and various spiritual practices. At the same time, she began to expand her art practice and study watercolour techniques and book illustration at online Art school WaterMedia by Tatyana Shirbidova and Veronika Kalacheva School (Russia). Between her studies and family concerns, Anna gave individual drawing lessons to children and organised master classes for adults. She created a series of illustrations for children's educational materials and illustrated several children's books for a private collection.
Having first trained as an academic artist, she has the daring and skill to experiment with traditional and contemporary approaches to representation. In her work, she relies on the principles of Avant-garde. She is inspired by the research and work of cubists and surrealists such as by Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Roberto Matta and Salvador Dali. Anna claims to be inspired by the works of Hilma af Klint, whose exhibition she attended in London 2023, to discover her inner potential and express herself.
A serious breakthrough in her creative activity occurred after studying at the Online Art Communication School by Julia Sysalova, in 2023. Having revisited her creative work and feeling the call of her soul again, she began to actively pursue a career in the global art market.
In her search for answers to questions about the truth of life and the laws of creation, Anna delved into the Tibetan knowledge of Dzogchen, ancient mythology and theosophy. In her art practice, referring to the ancient aphorism ‘‘Know thyself’’, she began to explore the concepts of human existence, being and the true self - the most interesting thing she believes one should endeavour to know in this world.
In 2024, she created Quantum Collage technique, in which she combined light watercolour and collage techniques in an effort to convey certain messages and coded ‘‘signals’’ to the viewer for their inner transformation. In her work she uses recognisable images as alternative meanings for each of her viewers, onto which each projects their own experiences and elements, symbols and signs, charting their own unique life path. Each of her works, like each person and their destiny, can be viewed for as long as the retina of an eye that never repeats itself.
Anna is currently working on her first solo autobiographical exhibition ‘‘The Path to Inner Freedom’’, which is one part of her project ‘‘Life as a Project’’.
Her work is in private collections in the UK, Germany, Italy, America, Canada, Russia and Ukraine, and she actively participates in international group physical and online exhibitions.