Ukraine
Varvara Uhlik:
SUNSHINE, HOW ARE YOU?
Exhibition at:
Exhibition at:
Tamachi Center Building Piata (outdoor) & Shin-Tamachi Building
Tamachi Center Building Piata (outdoor) & Shin-Tamachi Building
Varvara Uhlik was born in Ukraine in 1997. As a child, she made annual family trips to the Crimean Peninsula to visit relatives, encountering lingering traces of the Soviet era in playgrounds and at the dining table. Over the past years, due to social and political circumstances, her access to these cherished places and people has been reduced to family photo albums, fragments found online, and the reconstruction of fragile memories through photography.
This body of work weaves together “actual memories” and “imagined memories” to reassemble a precious childhood. Within its vivid colors, viewers catch glimpses of everyday life and culture in Ukraine, as well as the hidden realities that lie beneath the surface.
Varvara Uhlik was born in Ukraine in 1997. As a child, she made annual family trips to the Crimean Peninsula to visit relatives, encountering lingering traces of the Soviet era in playgrounds and at the dining table. Over the past years, due to social and political circumstances, her access to these cherished places and people has been reduced to family photo albums, fragments found online, and the reconstruction of fragile memories through photography.
This body of work weaves together “actual memories” and “imagined memories” to reassemble a precious childhood. Within its vivid colors, viewers catch glimpses of everyday life and culture in Ukraine, as well as the hidden realities that lie beneath the surface.
Varvara Uhlik was born in Ukraine in 1997. As a child, she made annual family trips to the Crimean Peninsula to visit relatives, encountering lingering traces of the Soviet era in playgrounds and at the dining table. Over the past years, due to social and political circumstances, her access to these cherished places and people has been reduced to family photo albums, fragments found online, and the reconstruction of fragile memories through photography.
This body of work weaves together “actual memories” and “imagined memories” to reassemble a precious childhood. Within its vivid colors, viewers catch glimpses of everyday life and culture in Ukraine, as well as the hidden realities that lie beneath the surface.
Varvara Uhlik (b. 1997, Dnipro, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian visual artist based in London. Rooted in her personal history and the landscapes of her upbringing in Eastern Ukraine, her work explores the inherited complexities of post-Soviet identity. Through photography, video, sculpture, and installation, Varvara navigates themes of generational trauma, cultural memory, and the enduring shadow of Russian imperialism on both individual lives and the wider socio-political fabric of Eastern Europe.
Central to her practice is the act of digital archiving - a means of piecing together fractured memories and inaccessible geographies. Since the 2014 occupation of Crimea, and more acutely during the ongoing full-scale war, Varvara’s connection to formative places and people has been mediated through fading family albums, online fragments, and pixelated remnants. Her photographs confront the tension between the permanence of digital records and the physical absence they represent, inviting a nuanced reflection on belonging, loss, and the slipperiness of memory - particularly in an age when even memory can be fabricated by AI, blurring the boundaries between truth and fabrication.
She reworks personal family archives alongside newly constructed scenes, to create visual narratives that move between the imagined and the remembered. Across media, scenes of folkloric domesticity, intimate rituals, and imagined returns create spaces where rupture and repair coexist, and personal and collective histories intertwine.
In 2024, Varvara was selected as one of the British Journal of Photography’s "Ones to Watch". That same year she was shortlisted for the PhMuseum Photography Grant. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Photo Élysée Museum (2025), Milan Photo Fair (2024, 2025), Encontros da Imagem (2024), and Liquida Photofestival (2025), and was featured in publications such as The Guardian, Photoworks, Riga Photography Biennial 2025, Der Greif, Paris Photo, and LensCulture among others.
Varvara Uhlik (b. 1997, Dnipro, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian visual artist based in London. Rooted in her personal history and the landscapes of her upbringing in Eastern Ukraine, her work explores the inherited complexities of post-Soviet identity. Through photography, video, sculpture, and installation, Varvara navigates themes of generational trauma, cultural memory, and the enduring shadow of Russian imperialism on both individual lives and the wider socio-political fabric of Eastern Europe.
Central to her practice is the act of digital archiving - a means of piecing together fractured memories and inaccessible geographies. Since the 2014 occupation of Crimea, and more acutely during the ongoing full-scale war, Varvara’s connection to formative places and people has been mediated through fading family albums, online fragments, and pixelated remnants. Her photographs confront the tension between the permanence of digital records and the physical absence they represent, inviting a nuanced reflection on belonging, loss, and the slipperiness of memory - particularly in an age when even memory can be fabricated by AI, blurring the boundaries between truth and fabrication.
She reworks personal family archives alongside newly constructed scenes, to create visual narratives that move between the imagined and the remembered. Across media, scenes of folkloric domesticity, intimate rituals, and imagined returns create spaces where rupture and repair coexist, and personal and collective histories intertwine.
In 2024, Varvara was selected as one of the British Journal of Photography’s "Ones to Watch". That same year she was shortlisted for the PhMuseum Photography Grant. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Photo Élysée Museum (2025), Milan Photo Fair (2024, 2025), Encontros da Imagem (2024), and Liquida Photofestival (2025), and was featured in publications such as The Guardian, Photoworks, Riga Photography Biennial 2025, Der Greif, Paris Photo, and LensCulture among others.
Varvara Uhlik (b. 1997, Dnipro, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian visual artist based in London. Rooted in her personal history and the landscapes of her upbringing in Eastern Ukraine, her work explores the inherited complexities of post-Soviet identity. Through photography, video, sculpture, and installation, Varvara navigates themes of generational trauma, cultural memory, and the enduring shadow of Russian imperialism on both individual lives and the wider socio-political fabric of Eastern Europe.
Central to her practice is the act of digital archiving - a means of piecing together fractured memories and inaccessible geographies. Since the 2014 occupation of Crimea, and more acutely during the ongoing full-scale war, Varvara’s connection to formative places and people has been mediated through fading family albums, online fragments, and pixelated remnants. Her photographs confront the tension between the permanence of digital records and the physical absence they represent, inviting a nuanced reflection on belonging, loss, and the slipperiness of memory - particularly in an age when even memory can be fabricated by AI, blurring the boundaries between truth and fabrication.
She reworks personal family archives alongside newly constructed scenes, to create visual narratives that move between the imagined and the remembered. Across media, scenes of folkloric domesticity, intimate rituals, and imagined returns create spaces where rupture and repair coexist, and personal and collective histories intertwine.
In 2024, Varvara was selected as one of the British Journal of Photography’s "Ones to Watch". That same year she was shortlisted for the PhMuseum Photography Grant. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Photo Élysée Museum (2025), Milan Photo Fair (2024, 2025), Encontros da Imagem (2024), and Liquida Photofestival (2025), and was featured in publications such as The Guardian, Photoworks, Riga Photography Biennial 2025, Der Greif, Paris Photo, and LensCulture among others.
See You at SEEEU!
Organizer:
Supported by:
European Union
seeeu@koi.lt
Europe Photo Month Tokyo
Oct 23 - Nov 23 2025
See You at SEEEU!
Organizer:
Supported by:
European Union
See You at SEEEU!
Organizer:
Supported by:
European Union