Nat Derevyanko

Short Biography

Nat Derevyanko was born in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, in 1976. She trained in Lviv, first studying graphic design at the Ivan Trush Lviv College of Decorative and Applied Arts. She then spent six years at the Faculty of Sacred Art of the Lviv National Academy of Arts, graduating in 2001. That year she began working as a professional artist. She first exhibited in Italy, where she held several solo exhibitions between 2003 and 2005 and won prizes at the Premio ‘G. D’Annunzio’ in Pescara. In 2006 she returned to Zaporizhzhia and began teaching art and design at Khortytsia National Academy. Alongside teaching, she continued to paint, exhibit across Ukraine and illustrate children’s books. After the war in Ukraine forced her to leave home, she settled in Avezzano, Italy. Her experience of displacement now shapes much of her work, which she exhibits in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Education

Nat studied Graphic Design at the Ivan Trush Lviv College of Decorative and Applied Arts from 1991 to 1995. She then studied at the Faculty of Sacred Art of the Lviv National Academy of Arts from 1995 to 2001. She also holds the academic degree of Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences.

Exhibitions

Nat has exhibited widely in Ukraine and Italy, as well as in France, the United States, South Korea and Kazakhstan. Her solo exhibitions began in Italy, with ‘Seven Days of the Creation of the World’ at Teatro della Regina, Cattolica, and ‘Ortucchio and Its Inhabitants’ at Castello Piccolomini, Ortucchio, both in 2003. These were followed by ‘The World of Icons’ at Castello Orsini, Avezzano (2004), and ‘Colours, Symbols, Suffering’ in L’Aquila (2005). In Zaporizhzhia she later showed ‘Spring Tale’ (2013) and ‘Hunting for Sun Hares’ at the Art Salon (2016). In Ukraine she has taken part in many All-Ukrainian exhibitions in Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipro, as well as the Ukrainian Folk Modern triennial in Chernivtsi (2009) and the Triennial of Book Graphics in Kyiv (2013). Between 2008 and 2016 she joined the ‘Khortytsia Through the Ages’ plein air programmes. Her earlier group exhibitions abroad include shows in Trasacco, Lanciano, Macerata, L’Aquila and Pannarano in Italy, and in Verdelais, France. More recently she has shown in ‘No Angry Birds’ at Distinction Gallery, Escondido, California (2020), ‘Sottosopra’ in Rome (2021), and ‘Salvare i bambini. Salvare il futuro’ at the European Parliament in Rome (2025). In 2026 she has exhibited at the Biennale Internazionale di Arte Contemporanea di Potenza, in ‘Confini invisibili’ at the Pinacoteca Provinciale di Potenza and in ‘LiquidSky’ at Galata Museo del Mare, Genoa. She also showed the installation ‘Torre di Babele’ at ‘Babele 4’, Spazio Musa, Turin, and took part in the OltreForma Art Prize in Francolise. Outside Italy that year, she presented ‘Let Green In’ at the Geumgang Nature Art Biennale in Gongju, South Korea, and exhibited in ‘Echoes of Origin’ at YEMAA Art Space, Atyrau, Kazakhstan, and 'Обід' at Eye Sea Gallery, Kyiv.

Awards

Nat won second place at the plein air in Poggiofiorito, Italy, in 2002, and a special prize in the ‘Valle Giovengo’ competition in Lecce nei Marsi in 2004. She also won third place at the XIII Premio ‘G. D’Annunzio’ in Pescara in 2005, and second place at the XIV edition in 2006. In 2007 she was named a laureate of the ‘Stepping Towards Mastery’ competition for gifted young artists in Zaporizhzhia.

Artistic Style

Nat’s visual language took shape during her training in sacred art, and that foundation still guides her work today. Her recent paintings explore memory, vulnerability, displacement and belonging. Working mostly in modular square panels, she builds intimate figurative scenes. Each panel stands as a separate moment, and together they form a kind of personal archive. Her work sits between realism and the decorative, with touches of quiet surrealism. Childhood is a recurring theme, treated not as nostalgia but as the place where fear, imagination and resilience first take root. She uses birds, nests, seeds, plant forms and elements of armament as symbols of protection, instinct, fragility and change. Her palette is restrained but strong, often setting saturated pink against darkness or empty space. Her figures are often guarded, partly hidden or turned inward. As she puts it, ‘This gesture of withdrawal is not disappearance; it is self-preservation.’ Since the war in Ukraine forced her into exile, her paintings have become a quiet record of that experience. They do not take political positions; they show how meaning can be rebuilt from memory.

Additional Information

Since 2006 Nat has taught art and design in higher education in Zaporizhzhia. She is a member of the Department of Design at Khortytsia National Academy. She is a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine and the Union of Designers of Ukraine, and she is listed in the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine. Her commissions include ‘Annunciation’, a stained-glass project in Macwiller, France. She has illustrated many children’s books and poetry collections, including ‘Black Snowdrop’ (2010), ‘Fairy Tales for Little Princesses’ (2012), ‘Treasures for Little Children’ (2012), ‘Tales of the White Rabbit’ (2013), ‘I Want, I Want Gifts’ (2014) and ‘My Angel’ (2016). She also contributed to ‘Poster per la pace’, a collection of children’s posters for peace.