Yulia Pugacheva

Yulia Pugashova was born on May 24, 1983, in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Even as a child, she was surrounded by the beauty of nature: from her window, she could see the bay and a volcano, which became the main motifs of her early drawings. Another recurring theme in her works, like that of many girls, was beautiful princesses. In kindergarten, she painted for her playmates, and her drawings were in great demand.

After an exhibition at the kindergarten, the teacher spoke to her mother and said Yulia had great talent and should definitely attend art school. At 11, Yulia was taken to the entrance exam for art school, where she studied for the next four years. In her second year, she participated in a competition on the theme of space, and her work was published in the Moscow magazine "Young Artist." However, in her third year of art school, an incident occurred that shaped her future artistic career. In sculpture class, which she had always particularly enjoyed, Yulia created a three-figure composition based on the story "The Dwarf Nose." When the works were reviewed by a jury, one of the teachers stated that an artist should depict beauty, not ugliness. Yulia received only a grade of three for this work, which left a deep impression on her.

Her first solo exhibition took place at the Institute of Art, where she was in her third year of studies. It was a series of graphic portraits created using various techniques and from different perspectives. It was then that she realized that she had a particular talent for drawing people and that she was particularly good at it.
In 2009-2010, Julia created a series of graphic works entitled "City," which were first exhibited at the Art Institute and later at the Novosibirsk State Historical Museum. After this exhibition, she collaborated with the museum for a while, illustrating two books for them and drawing a map of the permanent exhibition. Julia describes herself as a graphic artist and prefers realism and mixed-media techniques. In 2013, while working on the "Signs of the Zodiac" series, she realized that Art Nouveau is particularly close to her. She considers human beauty and architectural landscapes to be the main themes of her art. She admires people's individuality, enjoys observing them, and reflects her inner world in her works. Urban landscapes are also a source of inspiration for her: streets, windows, shop windows, cracks in the asphalt—all of these come to life and are charged with meaning in her paintings.

Yulia's most important works include the "City" series, the "Zodiac Signs" series, and the "Winds of Change" interior doll. This doll was created during a period when she was intensively engaged in artistic doll making and ultimately turned out to be a self-portrait.
Yulia sees the role of the artist as a kind of mediator through which embodied images enter the world. The themes an artist chooses are always socially relevant, and consciously or unconsciously, through their work, they convey not only external reality but also themselves. This is why it is so exciting and often frightening for artists to present their work to the public—it's like baring a piece of their soul.

exhibitions and projects

2009 – Solo exhibition of graphic portraits, Institute of Art.
2009 – Solo exhibition of the graphic series “City”, Institute of Art.
2009 – "Plein Air Exhibition" with Anna Schill, Novosibirsk.
2010 – Solo exhibition of the graphic series “City”, Novosibirsk State Historical Museum.
2010 – Exhibition of artistic dolls, Novosibirsk State Historical Museum.
2020-2021 – Artistic design of the performance in the shadow theater “The Princess and the Pea”, Novosibirsk.
2023 – Exhibition of the series “Signs of the Zodiac”, Cultural and Leisure Center “Impuls”.
2023 – Exhibition of graphic works, exhibition hall of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation.
2023 – "Sibiriada" Worpswede – Group exhibition with artists from Siberia in the gallery
SCHLUH.art and EUROKUNSTWERKSTATT eV