About

Yanina (Yana) Movchan was born in Kiev in 1971.

Yana’s sublime mastery of the technique and structure of Renaissance painting combines with the instinctive symbolism of “magical realism” to create a personal neo-realist idiom. Her work is formal, yet playful; contemporary, yet timeless; and joyous, yet mysterious, evocative and dreamlike.

In Yana’s paintings, the intellectual and the emotional synthesize to form images that touch the viewer’s heart whilst issuing a challenge: there are deeper meanings to be unraveled, hidden clues amongst the hyper-real still lives, portraits and animal scenes; meanings which echo deep in the unconscious mind. Reviewers have compared Movchan’s work to Velasquez, Colville and Magritte.

Yana trained at the Ukrainian Art Academy. Her master’s thesis project (a triptych entitled “Life on Earth”) won the Golden Fund Prize, the Academy’s highest art award. Her work has featured in solo and group exhibitions in the Ukraine, Prague, London and Canada. She is based in Halifax, Canada, where she lives with her husband and two young sons.

Awards/Highlights

• 2007 Glenn Gould Foundation commission. Commemorative portrait of the celebrated pianist to mark the 75th anniversary of his birth.
• 2001 Best Painting Award, Annual Juried Show, Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
• 1995 Golden Fund Prize (the highest art award in the Ukrainian Art Academy) for “Life on Earth” (triptych, oil on canvas)
• 1989 Ukrainian Art Academy Award of Excellence for “Thoughts of Harmony” (oil on canvas). Painting accepted into the National Art Museum of Ukraine collection. “Thoughts of Harmony” received the highest possible marks and was later purchased by the Museum.