Three questions to Anna Voda
About Anna Voda
Anna Voda (Kharkiv, 1986) is a visual artist currently based in Lisbon, Portugal. Born in Ukraine, her journey has taken her from the vibrant streets of Kharkiv to the sunlit hills of Lisbon, where she now creates her art.
Her art celebrates the beauty and joy found in everyday life, transforming the mundane into something genuinely delightful. With a keen sense of humor and a vivid palette, she focuses on women and day-to-day objects, exploring how color shapes our perception of the world.
Her art has been recognised by a variety of publications and collaborators, including Forbes and Playboy Ukraine.
Anna, you've mentioned that art runs in the family blood. Could you tell us about your journey and how your family influenced your path as an artist?
Our home always smelled of paint, paper, and solvent — an adorable scent of creation.
My parents were my first teachers; they never imposed a style but taught me how to think, how to explore.
My favorite lesson was called ‘What’s under the cloth?’ The challenge was to hide objects under a piece of fabric and then draw what we imagined was beneath. After revealing the objects, we compared our drawings to reality — it was playful and analytical at once, like a puzzle for both the eye and the mind.
I often watched my mother painting or designing books, and my father sketching or developing projects. Their total immersion in their work deeply inspired me — it showed me how fascinating and meaningful a creative life can be.
When I began to create my own works and projects, I realised that I had found my way of exploring the world — a practice that demands both curiosity and discipline.
Beyond painting, you're also a graphic designer and have worked in set design and costume production for theatre and events. How do these different creative disciplines connect?
For me, all of it is just different forms of the same sensuality.
In theatre, set design, or spatial installations, what matters is rhythm, interaction — the way things breathe together.
Painting is simply another way to organize that same energy, but on a flat surface — to see the space between objects, to speak through color, to evoke emotions or, in the best case, desire.
I’m grateful you asked this — it touches on something central to my work. In my new video project ‘Alive Paintings’, I wanted to bring together my experience as both a set designer and an artist. The project consists of a series of short video stories that merge painting, movement, and atmosphere. I plan to release them all soon, but for now, I can share one piece with you — ‘Morning Routine’.
When I design a stage or create a costume, I think about the body — how it moves, how it feels.
In painting, the body transforms into color and gesture. Everything is interconnected — I just move between formats, following the aim that each work reveals.
Your work radiates joy and colour, a vibrancy that emerged even when you were leaving a place marked by conflict. How do you navigate the space between light and darkness in your work, and what is your vision for the world we live in today?
I left Ukraine three weeks before the war — for my exhibition.
On the first day of the invasion, I was on the phone with my mother and brother.
I didn’t see the war with my own eyes, but I still feel it — as a shadow, a quiet but constant tension that lives inside. War kills color.
For me, color became a way to speak about survival.
Even when everything collapses, there is still the capacity to see beauty — in small details, in people, in a body that still feels.
I don’t want to make dark art about pain; I want to show how color still finds its way through. Joy itself can be a form of resistance.
The world feels very fragile now, but I believe that attention to the simple, the everyday, even to the act of breathing — can bring us back to presence, to the possibility of imagining a future again.
Our selection of Anna Voda's works
