Tamara Safarova (b. 1992) is a Ukrainian feminist queer artist of Azerbaijani origin who lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Working across painting, graphics, comics, photography, digital media, and performance, Safarova explores themes of identity, memory, cultural heritage, gender, trauma and transformation.
Her work seeks to expose the invisible: making internalised experiences and collective silences visible, felt, and shared. Mythology, personal history, and symbolic archetypes form the core of her artistic vocabulary.
Safarova’s visual language often bridges the deeply personal with the mythic and the political, grounded in both the natural world and the layered cultural context of postcolonial experiences.
Her first solo exhibition took place in 2022 at the Kunstmuseum in Stuttgart, Germany. Since then, her work has been shown internationally, including at Santa Maria delle Grazie (Venice, Italy), KĂĽhlhaus (Berlin, Germany), the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art (Kyiv, Ukraine), Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv, Ukraine), and Poltava Art Museum (Poltava, Ukraine).
Her works are held in public collections in Italy, Belgium, and Ukraine.
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Artwork from the series “Red-blue” is in public collection (Bakota Hub art space).
Through this artwork, I aim to convey my personal feelings of pain caused by the cruel war that has inflicted a deep wound on the body of my country. Starting from the moment when the enemies initiated a full-scale invasion, my heart has transformed into a continuously bleeding emotional wound.
The face of the foreground figure is obscured by a spiral unfurling from a dark abyss, resembling the universe. This motif reproduces the intense state of anxiety and unrest that accompanies our future in the conditions of military conflict.
The red sky, once symbolizing tranquility and harmony, has now become a living source of threat. In this horrifying spectacle staged by the malicious terrorist group under the name of russia, Ukraine is adrift in a sea of blood.
The symbolism of the blood spilled onto our land intertwines with the image of a figure holding a chalice. This image might even evoke the traditional Ukrainian dish - borscht, which ironically serves as a reminder of Ukraine’s intricate and bloody history.
Tamara Safarova (b. 1992) is a Ukrainian feminist queer artist of Azerbaijani origin who lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Working across painting, graphics, comics, photography, digital media, and performance, Safarova explores themes of identity, memory, cultural heritage, gender, trauma and transformation.
Her work seeks to expose the invisible: making internalised experiences and collective silences visible, felt, and shared. Mythology, personal history, and symbolic archetypes form the core of her artistic vocabulary.
Safarova’s visual language often bridges the deeply personal with the mythic and the political, grounded in both the natural world and the layered cultural context of postcolonial experiences.
Her first solo exhibition took place in 2022 at the Kunstmuseum in Stuttgart, Germany. Since then, her work has been shown internationally, including at Santa Maria delle Grazie (Venice, Italy), KĂĽhlhaus (Berlin, Germany), the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art (Kyiv, Ukraine), Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv, Ukraine), and Poltava Art Museum (Poltava, Ukraine).
Her works are held in public collections in Italy, Belgium, and Ukraine.
