​BIOGRAPHY

​

Vlada Lobus is a multidisciplinary artist, born in 1994 in Dnipro, Ukraine, works in the mediums of painting, installation and photography. She is currently based in Krakow, Poland. Vlada earned a master's degree in political economy from Shanghai University. Her stay in China had a significant impact on the formation of her personal philosophy and worldview. She is currently studying psychotherapy, which is directly related to her artistic activity. Vlada began developing her artistic career in 2022. Since 2023, she has been participating in collective exhibition projects in Ukraine and Europe. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

​

My artistic practice exists at the intersection of psychology and art. Rooted in psychological research, theoretical study, Gestalt practice, and my own therapeutic experience, my work explores the complexities of mental constitution, cognitive biases, and the psychosomatic manifestations of trauma, as well as the cultivation of resilience - an essential human capacity, especially in times of war and instability.

​

Living in the condition of forced migration, I find that my only choice is to reinvent the ways of resilience. My perception of borders and home is now turned upside down; they cannot remain the same as before. My experience of migration (both earlier desired migration and forced migration now) shapes my ongoing question, still unanswered: what is home at all?

​

These concerns lead me to the study of trauma responses - both individual and collective. I am interested in how traumatic experience shapes perception, behavior, and memory, and how existential crises reorganize not only personal identity but shared narratives. The psychological is inseparable from physical; unprocessed trauma leads to the physical manifestations in the form of psychosomatic response. I reflect on how societies respond to prolonged instability, war, and displacement: through denial, adaptation, fragmentation, or solidarity. 

​

I am deeply committed to analog processes, including film photography, silver gelatin printing, and alternative photographic techniques. I perceive the body of the photograph as analogous to the human body. By studying the physicality of photography: its materiality, physics, and chemistry, I develop and transform my ideas through direct engagement with the medium itself.

I believe that the world is not dualistic but ambivalent. The coexistence of seemingly incompatible things is, from a Gestalt point of view, essential. I stand by a holistic approach to life, experience, and the inner world. In many cases, when people see “either/or”, I see “both/and”.