b. 1993 in Dnipro, UKR, based in Prague, CZ

Masha Kovtun is a Ukrainian artist based in Prague. Kovtun’s practice is an exploration of displacement, positioning her within a vital contemporary discourse. She investigates, with emphasis on the mutual understanding of nostalgia and melancholy, the search for one’s own identity. The specificity of being an immigrant continually informs her expression. Leaving behind a war-torn country, her paintings show a search for safety, a search that is an ongoing process between herself, her new environment, and her home. Through her paintings, Kovtun captures the rhythms of everyday life and the emotions that shape our sense of belonging.

Setting, figure, character, and picture brilliantly meet to produce images that are on the verge between reality and imagination, remembrance and continuity. The many sides of hope are evoked by Kovtun. For one, how hope can offer brightness and warmth against uncertainty. But also, how hope can dim and fluctuate against turning tides. Marked by a mature sensibility, Kovtun creates works that feel timely and pertinent without transferring the heavy weight of current events onto the viewer. Instead, the artist takes the danger out of urgency, and in doing so, she offers a space of respite and regeneration. With this, Masha Kovtun conveys that these are the ingredients we need to rise again for the next day. ⁠

Masha Kovtun obtained a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from the PGASA Architecture Studio in Dnipro, Ukraine (2015), and a Bachelor's and Master of Fine Arts from AAAD in Prague, Czech Republic (2017, 2024). She also studied at Die Angewandte in the studio of Henning Bohl in Vienna, Austria (2020).⁠