Everything here has a reason. Everything here has a soul.
Artist. Visual thinker. Meaning hunter.
Welcome to my creative world - a place where every project, idea, and image has a pulse.
Personal Projects
AFTER THE SHIFT, 2026, Hamburg, Germany.
After the Shift is an ongoing artistic project that explores transformation, identity, and the emotional impact of profound life changes. Developed in the years following my relocation from Ukraine to Germany, the project reflects on the experience of navigating new cultural, social, and personal realities while rebuilding a sense of self.
Through painting, color, and visual storytelling, I investigate themes of femininity, vulnerability, resilience, and belonging. The works do not document specific events; instead, they focus on the internal shifts that occur when familiar structures disappear and new perspectives begin to emerge.
Color plays a central role within the project, functioning as an emotional language rather than a decorative element. Drawing from Pop Art aesthetics while moving beyond their traditional boundaries, the paintings combine personal narratives with universal experiences of change, adaptation, and self-discovery.
After the Shift is both a reflection on transformation and an invitation to consider the moments that redefine who we are.
CRASH AND BURN, 2019, Kyiv, Ukraine.
CRASH AND BURN is a fragmented archive of memory, emotion, and unspoken dialogues. Inspired by the phrase “to break into a thousand pieces,” the project reflects on personal collapse as a form of transformation beautiful, painful, and alive.
In this visceral body of work, Mikityuk navigates the space between fact and fiction, memory and mythology. Each piece carries the weight of imagined conversations, missed encounters, and emotional residue that lingers beneath the surface.
CRASH AND BURN is not only an aesthetic gesture it is a deep emotional cartography. Through layered textures and raw visual language, the artist offers a powerful meditation on loss, desire, and the quiet violence of emotional survival.
VONA, 2018, Kyiv, Ukraine.
VONA is an intimate exploration of female identity through the prism of daily rituals marriage, motherhood, physiology, and private rebellion. In this project, Darina Mikityuk examines the tension between inner emotional fire and outward calmness, revealing the unspoken dramas that unfold within the domestic sphere.
Using symbolic gestures and visual metaphors, the artist transforms mundane moments into acts of resistance and remembrance. VONA speaks in a quiet, powerful language one that honors female resilience, cyclical experience, and the beauty of imperfection.
At its core, this series is a love letter to womanhood in its many forms: sensual, conflicted, sacred, and defiantly ordinary.
A Solo Exhibition by One Artist,2016.
Lubny, Ukraine.
The exhibition Exhibition of One Artist in Lubny Art Gallery was an intimate and sincere presentation of Darina Mikityuk´s early artistic voice. It reflected a moment of youthful intensity - a mixture of openness, naivety, and bold experimentation.
The works were deeply personal, drawing directly from the artist’s emotions and lived experiences. They explored a wide spectrum of feelings, from joy and infatuation to irony and doubt, creating a vivid mosaic of contrasts. What distinguished this exhibition was the intellectual playfulness of the titles, often sarcastic yet humorous in tone, which resonated strongly with the audience.
Among the highlights was the painting Everybody Wants to Get Married, depicting two young girls in wedding dresses - a sharp, ironic reflection on societal expectations placed upon women. Another memorable work, Aura of Being in Love, captured the fleeting yet radiant emotional states of affection and desire.
Though modest in scale and hosted outside the cultural hub of Kyiv, the exhibition stood out as a bold and authentic gesture of self-expression. It remains a testament to the early stage of Mikityuk´s artistic journey, where honesty, irony, and emotional richness first intertwined to shape her evolving pop-identity.
POP ART MATE, 2015, Kyiv, Ukraine.
POP ART MATE is a vibrant visual manifesto of femininity, irony, and emotional presence. In this debut solo exhibition, Darina Mikityuk reimagines pop art as a space where glamour meets vulnerability, and where the language of color and surface becomes a vessel for deeper truths.
Through bold palettes, expressive forms, and sharply ironic titles, the artist explores desires articulated in the urgency of the present moment. Each work is a performative confession - part diary, part provocation - that celebrates the complexity of the female experience.
In POP ART MATE, Mikityuk positions the female gaze as both playful and disruptive, reclaiming symbols of contemporary beauty and reframing them as sites of personal power. It is an aesthetic charged with emotion - a pop art that feels, dares, and exposes.
The project has become a foundational layer of the artist’s visual language and continues to shape her ongoing practice: a vivid, concept-driven style that blends cultural commentary with raw emotional honesty.
PERSONAL EXHIBITION
2015 – "POP ART MATE", Bekterevka Gallery, Kyiv
2015 – "Exhibition of one artist", Lubny Art Gallery, Lubny
2018 – "SHE", Nebo Gallery, Kyiv
2019 – "Crash & Burn", Triptych Gallery, Kyiv
2026 - “After the Schift”, Labań´s artroom, Hamburg.
Group Exhibitions & Participations
2015 – "Lubny Art Spring", All-Ukrainian exhibition
2015 – "Day of Kyiv at St. Andrews", International Art Festival Talent Energy Fest
2015 – Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv (4 works sold under the hammer)
2016 – Women’s Art Project, Chocolate House, Kyiv
2016 – WHAT IF FEST #2, Kyiv Dovzhenko Film Studio & Cinematheque
2016 – Charity Art Niche (CAN) 1.0, Triptych Gallery, Kyiv
2016 – All-Ukrainian exhibition of fine and decorative arts, National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Kyiv
2016 – Charity Art Niche (CAN) 2.0 Summer Edition, Triptych Gallery, Kyiv
2016 – "Two years ago", Spivakovska ART:EGO, Kyiv
2016 – "365 days of design", Salon.Art&Design;, Kyiv
2016 – "Small worlds" charity auction, Art Ukraine Gallery, Kyiv
2017 – "New beginning", Spivakovska ART:EGO Cultural Center, Kyiv
2018 – "Lubny Art Spring", All-Ukrainian exhibition
2019 – "Crash & Burn", Triptych Gallery, Kyiv (Global Arts Workshop)
2019 – "Verbalization", Lavra Art Gallery, Kyiv
2019 – CAN 4.0 Charity Art Niche, Triptych Gallery, Kyiv
2019 – "Small worlds", Triptych Gallery, Kyiv
2019 – Global Arts Workshop exhibition, Kyiv
2020 – PARALLAX ART FAIR, Kensington Town Hall, London
2020 – "POP ART UKRAINE", Portal 11, Kyiv
2021 – "Lubny Art Spring", Lubny Art Gallery, Lubny
2021 – "Be Courage Bazaar", Kyiv
2022 – "Multiplying Beauty", cooperation with clinic of plastic surgery New Body, Kyiv
2022 – "Power of Woman", Hearts Art Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia
2022 – Contemporary Ukrainian Art Presentation, Negli occhi di lei, Italy
2022 – Master Class for Children, "Colors of Solidarity", Udays in Hamburg, MARKK, Hamburg
2022 – ART FOR Freedom, Charity Exhibition, Marbella, Spain
2022 – "380ART", Exhibition of Ukrainian Artists, Munich
2022 – "Sensus Expression", Hearts Art Gallery, Tallinn
2022 – Ukrainian Residence, Paulsenhaus, Hamburg
2023 – Contrapunkt Collective Exhibition, Künstlerhaus, Vienna
2026 - New Energy Art Bar, Soho House, Berlin.
PUBLICATION
Darina Mikityuk's works have been featured in Vogue Ukraine, Bestin.ua, Playboy Ukraine, Marie Claire, AD Spain, and other online & print magazines. Her painting was chosen as a cover for an anthology of Ukrainian prose. Authors of the anthology include: Oksana Zabuzhko, Lyudmyla Taran, Sofia Andrukhovych, Larysa, Yevhenia Kononenko, Dzvinka Matiyash, Maria Matios, Sofia Maidanska, Svitlana Povaliieva, Svitlana Pyrkalo, Iren Rozdobudko.
2014 – "Post War and Contemporary Art" catalog, Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv
2014 – "Christmas Art Weekend" catalog, Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv
2015 – "Classic and Contemporary Art" catalog, Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv
2015 – "Lubny Art Spring" catalog, Lubny
2016 – "Women’s Art Project", Chocolate House, Kyiv (catalog)
2016 – "Classic. Underground. Contemporary", Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv (catalog)
2016 – "All-Ukrainian Exhibition of Decorative and Applied Arts" catalog, Kyiv
2022 - „Power Woman“ catalog, Tallinn.
2026 - Interview and feature on the solo exhibition “After the Shift”, Hamburg Woman Magazine, Germany.
AUCTIONS
2015 – Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv (4 works sold under the hammer)
2014 – "Post War and Contemporary Art" Auction, Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv
2014 – "Christmas Art Weekend", Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv
2015 – "Classic and Contemporary Art", Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv
2015 – "Lot 84", Playboy Magazine Ukraine Charity Auction, Kyiv
2016 – "Classic. Underground. Contemporary", Golden Section Auction House, Kyiv
2016 – "Small Worlds" Charity Auction, Art Ukraine Gallery, Kyiv
WORKSHOP & Educational PROJECT
May 2022
#HamburgStandsWithUkraine - Children’s Art Workshop, MARKK Museum Hamburg, Germany
Conducted in collaboration with UDAYS as part of a cultural program for Ukrainian children.
2022
Three-Day Art and Well-Being Program for Ukrainian Children, Winterhude, Hamburg, Germany
A three-day creative program held at a villa in Winterhude, where Ukrainian children took part in art activities and received psychological support. The project was developed in collaboration with the Association of Ukrainians in Northern Germany and supported by the Ukrainian Saturday School in Hamburg.
March 2025
Your Name in Explosive Pop Art: Creative Workshop for Children, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G), Germany.
Interactive workshop introducing Pop Art through drawing, color and creative experimentation.
March 2026
Takashi Murakami: Color and Emotion, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G), Germany.
Creative workshop exploring contemporary Japanese art, color symbolism and emotional expression inspired by the work of Takashi Murakami.