b/w portrait of Ulyana Gumeniuk by Iain ParkerUlyana Gumeniuk by Iain Parker

The daughter of a Ukrainian artist-dissident Ulyana Gumeniuk had a turbulent artistic childhood. She had first hand experience of secret gatherings of nonconformist art groups in Leningrad including meetings of the Sterligov group (Sterligov was a student of Malevich), where she was introduced to constructivist and formalists concepts at the early age of 9. After attending State Art School at 11, she went on to study at the Art Academy in Saint Petersburg where she also received a classical training evident in her oil painting technique, for instance in Pipes 2 which borrows stylistically from the dome paintings of Italian baroque churches.

Through a benefaction and portrait commissions she went on to finish her studies at London's St Martins School of Art in 1996. Since then she has had a successful career, exhibiting with artists like Paula Rego in Belgium and France and at Luke and A gallery in London and had a solo show at Zaporizhia State Muzeum in Ukraine. She has also taken part in projects at South London Gallery and at Tate Modern. Her works are held in public collections in Trinity College Cambridge; Princeton University, USA; Zaporizhia Art Museum, Ukraine; CUAF Museum, Toronto, Canada; Commune de Senigallia Museum, Italy; the Collection of the Trustee of the Art Museum of Maryland, USA, and in private collections in Belgium, England, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Russia, Ukraine and the USA.