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Tamara Safarova
Artist from Ukraine
Tamara Safarova (b. 1992) is a Ukrainian artist of Azerbaijani origin who lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine. She started her artistic career in 2022 in response to russia full-scale invasion of 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 post-soviet and 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), Kühlhaus (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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Comic zine Mister Travchyk
Mixed media by Tamara Safarova
14.8 x 21 cm • Ink, Paper, Marker, Riso print
Location:
Kyiv, Ukraine
The comic “Mister Travchyk” (from Ukrainian word “trava” meaning “grass”) opens up a space between personal myth and contemporary social contexts. The central character – naive, eccentric, but full of love for the world – appears as the artist's alter ego. Through him, I speak about feelings of otherness, vulnerability, care, and the search for and acceptance of oneself.
The comic touches on the themes of nature, psychoactive experiences, and social reactions to the atypical and “unacceptable.” It brings to the forefront issues of marginalization, the right to alternative methods of healing, and the freedom to be oneself. An important theme is the reflection on Ukrainian drug policy and the potential of medical cannabis in treating psycho-emotional conditions exacerbated by war.
The project combines an exhibition of original drawings, comic zine and a performative reading. By voicing the characters, I bring the comic into the realm of live action: the drawing acquires a voice, and the story unfolds as an intimate and emotional conversation with the viewer.
Issue 2 of the comic zine ‘Mr. Travchik’.
Printed by RISO.
Paper: Munken linx 120 g.
Format: A5, 16 pages.
Colours: medium blue, yellow, black, bright red.
Limited edition of 200 copies, each numbered and signed.
Location:
Kyiv, Ukraine
About the artist
Tamara Safarova
Artist from Ukraine
Tamara Safarova (b. 1992) is a Ukrainian artist of Azerbaijani origin who lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine. She started her artistic career in 2022 in response to russia full-scale invasion of 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 post-soviet and 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), Kühlhaus (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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