Valeria Miroshnikova
(born 1996, Luhansk, Ukraine) is a multidisciplinary artist, photographer, and collage artist. Her work intertwines observations of the inner self and external reality through the mediums of photography and collage.
Since childhood, Valeriia has been actively engaged in creative and organizational processes—she practiced dance, participated in various activities, and contributed to school initiatives. In 2014, due to the onset of war in eastern Ukraine, she relocated to Kyiv. Before that, she had obtained an education in commerce and finance at the Luhansk State College of Economics and Trade. In Kyiv, she worked in sales, opened her own souvenir shop, and nearly completed a bachelor's degree in management at the State University of Infrastructure and Technology.
Since 2019, Valeriia has been actively involved in photography, and in 2021, she shifted her focus to collage art. In her works, she explores mental states, social issues, and cultural codes, expressing them through vibrant colors, composition, and symbolism.
For her, collage is a way to discover new perspectives on ordinary things and gain a deeper understanding of herself and her surroundings.
Today, Valeriia is pursuing a bachelor's degree in cultural studies, researching art as a means of dialogue with society and a reflection of personal values. Her goal is to use creativity to explore herself and draw attention to pressing contemporary issues, inspiring others to reflect and take action.
Artist Statement
I work at the intersection of personal experience, embodied memory, and historical trauma. My art emerges from the need to piece myself back together — from fragments, remnants, and traces. Through photography, collage, and text, I explore themes of vulnerability, identity, memory, and the body as an archive of what has been lived.
I’m drawn to fragmentation as a way of thinking and seeing the world. I don’t seek wholeness — instead, I construct a new form of presence from what remains: archival images, body parts, everyday objects, subtle gestures. In this process, I am guided by intuition, by the silence within and the movement around me.
My work often reflects on the experience of war, forced displacement, psychological instability, and deep emotional states. At the same time, I aim to speak not only about loss, but also about the potential for healing — about tenderness as strength, and love as a form of resilience.
For me, collage is not just a technique — it is an act of stitching myself back into the world.
Art is my way of breathing, staying, and feeling the truth.
Art is my way of breathing, staying, and feeling the truth.
Author's Manifesto VMRSHNKV
I work with fragments.
I work with fragments.
My art is a collage — and so is the world I live in.
I gather images, bodies, memories, cracks, fragments of silence.
Everything that broke, got lost, scattered between war, love, and childhood —
I assemble again.
Not to restore what was whole,
but to give meaning to what’s been shattered.
Everything that broke, got lost, scattered between war, love, and childhood —
I assemble again.
Not to restore what was whole,
but to give meaning to what’s been shattered.
I am drawn to the vulnerable.
To what aches, what tightens the chest, what lacks clear shape —
I let it exist.
In my work, I do not hide anxiety, tenderness, fatigue, or shadow.
Because it’s through them that a person begins to sound real.
To what aches, what tightens the chest, what lacks clear shape —
I let it exist.
In my work, I do not hide anxiety, tenderness, fatigue, or shadow.
Because it’s through them that a person begins to sound real.
Collage is my way of breathing.
With the body. Through movement. Through image.
I don’t seek perfect forms, but living ones.
The kind that have known loss — and still choose love.
With the body. Through movement. Through image.
I don’t seek perfect forms, but living ones.
The kind that have known loss — and still choose love.
I do not believe in the distance between the personal and the political.
When my city burns, my hands tremble.
When memory ignites — I create an image.
That’s how I speak.
That’s how I listen.
That’s how I remember.
When my city burns, my hands tremble.
When memory ignites — I create an image.
That’s how I speak.
That’s how I listen.
That’s how I remember.
Art is not an escape,
it is a way to remain.
it is a way to remain.