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Anastasia Luganskaya
Anastasia Luganskaya
I am a painter and tattoo artist from Saint Petersburg. I have loved drawing for as long as I can remember. As a child, it was the way I spent my time and made sense of the images around me. That interest stayed with me as I grew older and eventually led me to study art formally. In 2010, I entered an art academy in Saint Petersburg, where I completed a bachelor’s degree followed by a master’s degree in art history.
During my studies, I became especially interested in iconography and symbolism. I was drawn to the way an image can communicate beyond what it shows at first glance. I began looking closely at the symbols used in different religious traditions: how they are repeated, how their meanings change across cultures, and how a single detail can alter the way we read an entire image. That curiosity became an important part of my artistic practice. I continue to study visual traditions and bring elements of them into my own work.
My paintings often begin with a figure, a gesture, or a symbol that stays in my mind. From there, I build a composition in which details carry their own meanings. Eyes, flowers, halos, ornament, and the female form appear throughout my work, but I do not use them simply as decoration. I weave symbols into the image so that there is something to discover beyond its immediate appearance. I like the idea that a viewer can return to a painting and notice a detail they missed before, or find a meaning that speaks to their own experience.
Materials are also central to how I work. I love painting in oils and tempera, drawing with Japanese ink, and incorporating gold leaf into many of my pieces. Each material brings a different quality to the surface: the depth of oil paint, the directness of ink, the character of tempera, or the way gold catches and changes with the light. I enjoy moving between these techniques and letting the needs of each painting guide my choices.
Alongside painting, I developed a practice in tattooing and opened my own studio. Working on the body taught me to think carefully about line, placement, and the relationship between an image and the person who carries it. My studio is also my painting workspace, where I have the freedom to develop ideas on a larger scale. Although a tattoo and a canvas ask different things of me, both begin with drawing and with the search for an image that feels meaningful.
I am particularly drawn to the tension between intimacy and ritual: an image may feel personal and immediate, while its symbols connect it to stories and visual languages much older than us. My aim is to make work that invites a closer look, where colour, material, and symbol create a story that remains open to interpretation.
2015 - 2017 Stieglitz Academy of Art and Design — Master’s degree in Art History St. Petersburg, Russia
2010 - 2015 Repin Academy of Fine Arts — Bachelor’s degree St. Petersburg, Russia
During my studies, I became especially interested in iconography and symbolism. I was drawn to the way an image can communicate beyond what it shows at first glance. I began looking closely at the symbols used in different religious traditions: how they are repeated, how their meanings change across cultures, and how a single detail can alter the way we read an entire image. That curiosity became an important part of my artistic practice. I continue to study visual traditions and bring elements of them into my own work.
My paintings often begin with a figure, a gesture, or a symbol that stays in my mind. From there, I build a composition in which details carry their own meanings. Eyes, flowers, halos, ornament, and the female form appear throughout my work, but I do not use them simply as decoration. I weave symbols into the image so that there is something to discover beyond its immediate appearance. I like the idea that a viewer can return to a painting and notice a detail they missed before, or find a meaning that speaks to their own experience.
Materials are also central to how I work. I love painting in oils and tempera, drawing with Japanese ink, and incorporating gold leaf into many of my pieces. Each material brings a different quality to the surface: the depth of oil paint, the directness of ink, the character of tempera, or the way gold catches and changes with the light. I enjoy moving between these techniques and letting the needs of each painting guide my choices.
Alongside painting, I developed a practice in tattooing and opened my own studio. Working on the body taught me to think carefully about line, placement, and the relationship between an image and the person who carries it. My studio is also my painting workspace, where I have the freedom to develop ideas on a larger scale. Although a tattoo and a canvas ask different things of me, both begin with drawing and with the search for an image that feels meaningful.
I am particularly drawn to the tension between intimacy and ritual: an image may feel personal and immediate, while its symbols connect it to stories and visual languages much older than us. My aim is to make work that invites a closer look, where colour, material, and symbol create a story that remains open to interpretation.
Education
Education
2015 - 2017 Stieglitz Academy of Art and Design — Master’s degree in Art History St. Petersburg, Russia
2010 - 2015 Repin Academy of Fine Arts — Bachelor’s degree St. Petersburg, Russia
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