Barbara Drobot
AQ is our series of hardcover catalogs celebrating extraordinary women artists. Available on Amazon. Visit the AQ Catalog Webpage to learn more.
Barbara Drobot, featured in AQ Volume VII, was born in 1994 in Kyiv, Ukraine. She currently lives in Georgia. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, Urban Planning, and Environmental Design at the National Aviation University in Kyiv. Since 2014, she has been teaching drawing and painting to children and adults, combining classical training with a personalized approach. She has participated in international exhibitions and art projects.
The artist is drawn to themes of silence and inner rhythm. In her work, she explores the phenomenon of embodiment and the ways in which emotional states can be observed and captured through the body. Barbara works primarily with oil painting, using layered textures, marks, abrasions, and friction—leaving space for ambiguity and a sense of movement within stillness.
She strives to create a space in her paintings where the viewer can pause, slow down, feel, and enter into an inner dialogue.
Artist Statement
In my artistic practice, I explore the theme of embodiment and those subtle human states that can only be felt, not fully understood. I reflect on the body as a space where these states accumulate through gestures, weight, stillness, and tension. The figures in my paintings are not specific individuals; they are symbolic representations of the human form as a vessel carrying the imprint of suspended emotions. I’m drawn to the moment when emotion freezes in the body and to the silence that follows.
My personal experience of long-term migration has made me notice how many emotions remain unprocessed in the constant search for a place to belong. I feel this in my own body; I recognize it in others. This condition is so common in our contemporary world and deeply concerns me. Through my work, I offer the viewer an invitation to slow down. To pause. To enter an inner dialogue on a psycho-emotional level. To rediscover what has been forgotten, to feel the present moment without external noise. To simply be.
Alongside my studio practice, I have been teaching drawing and painting since 2014, working with both children and adults. My approach to education mirrors my artistic values: I create space for personal expression, inner reflection, and sensitive observation. I see art education not as the transmission of techniques, but as a shared exploration of form, thought, and emotional depth. In both teaching and painting, I focus on what lies beneath the surface.
I work with oil paint and textures, allowing traces, abrasions, and friction to remain on the surface. I’m not looking for formal perfection. What matters to me is ambiguity, roughness, and a sense of movement within stillness.
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